Open, the Gate of the Dragons!
by PhantomWhirl
Summary: Finally, Fairy Tail won the Grand Magic Games! But Lucy feels that she is too weak, and leaves to train for two years! Now she's back, stronger than ever! But there are still many mysteries left unsolved, like the dragons' disappearance, Lucy's mum's death, and the strange new feeling Natsu gets when he thinks about Lucy! NALU
1. Lucy's Departure

**Hey everyone! This is my first fanfic and I don't really know how this thing works yet ^^ so I hope u all can help this newbie here XDD. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS STORY! AND PLZ REVIEW! :P Well, I see many ppl do disclaimers, so yeah...**

**I don't own Fairy Tail, or any of the characters in it! :P**

It was after the Grand Magic Tournament. Fairy Tail had miraculously come first, despite their horrible performance on the first day. Everybody in the guild was celebrating, laughing and drinking; even Lucy managed to slip out of the infirmary to join in. They were worried, asking her if she should be out and about so soon, but she just laughed it off, stating she couldn't miss the celebrating. A few hours later, all the guild members were either on the ground, sleeping, or had already headed home, except for the celestial mage and Master Makarov. Lucy was in deep thought, which made the old man curious. "What's wrong, Lucy?" he asked her, snapping her out of her trance. She looked around at the sleeping figures, and didn't answer for a while. "I want to get stronger." she finally whispered.

"Ah, this is about your fight with Minerva, isn't it?"

"Mhm. I couldn't do anything, while she continuously beat me up like that. If she wanted, she could have easily made me come last. We could have lost."

"Lucy, you are a strong mage already."

"Yeah, I know. But I want to get stronger, and protect my nakama."

Master Makarov sighed. He could see the determination in her eyes. He couldn't stop her now.

"That's why, Master, I need to go train. I'm leaving tomorrow."

The short man hesitated for a second, and then replied, "That's quite soon. How long are you leaving?"

"For two years, maybe? I plan on travelling around Fiore."

"I see. Well, good luck."

"Thanks, Master. I'll tell everyone before I leave tomorrow." And with that, the celestial mage got up and left the guild, probably to go pack up some things. The Master sighed again and retreated into his office.

A certain iron dragon slayer opened his eyes and looked at his little companion. "Bunny-girl's gonna leave, huh? You wanna tell 'em?" The exceed crossed his arms in front of him and stared at the where the Master and Lucy had their conversation a few minutes ago. "Nah. Lucy said she would tell them herself." Gajeel just shrugged and got off the dirty guild floor. "Whatever." was his only reply. With that, the both of them left as well.

_and then…_

The guild was back to normal when Lucy entered. She giggled at the sight of Natsu and Gray fighting, but Erza was too happy munching on her strawberry cake to notice. Happy was asking Lisanna how to woo Charle, Mira serving at the bar with her usual cheery smile, Elfman yet again spouting some nonsense about manliness, and Cana drinking her 5th (!) barrel of beer. She could just see Levy's blue hair poking out from the massive book she was reading. Gee, how she was going to miss all of them. She walked up to the blissful Erza and shouted, "Hey, Erza! I would like to talk to you about something." Now, she had the whole guilds' attention. Some even gasped at her braveness for interrupting the scarlet haired mage while she was enjoying her cake. She even heard Happy whisper, "Oh, I see… Lucy is so brave… She dares to interrupt ERZA…"

Lucy silently cursed at the cat, _"You damn neko! You're making me nervous!"_ She took a deep breath and continued, "Actually, I was planning to tell each of you separately, but now that everyone's listening, I might as well tell you all…" She chuckled nervously, "You see… I wanted to get stronger, and so I was going to go train for a couple of years…" There was silence. She counted in her head, _"5, 4, 3…2…1…" _"WHAT?!" Lucy giggled at their funny reactions as they bombarded her with questions. Levy, Mira and Lisanna squeezed the life out of her with their group hug, and Happy started clinging to her like their was no tomorrow. Natsu and Gray were mainly asking questions and shaking her, saying it wasn't a funny joke, and Erza had dropped her cake in shock (when she recovered she started **demanding** for explanations). When the guild finally calmed down (kinda), after what seemed like _hours_, Lucy explained it was only two years. Team Natsu was refusing to let her go, and she was starting to worry about missing her train. "Relax, guys! It's not like I'm gonna be gone forever, (Happy sobbed even more loudly at the word 'forever' ) its just a while! Treat it like I'm gone on a very long solo mission, okay? Gildarts hardly stays in the guild at all, and he goes on 100 year-long missions!" she said, trying to soothe the crying cat. "B-but… Lucy, we're a team, aren't we? Don't leave us, you weirdo!" Natsu pleaded, looking at her with puppy dog eyes. "Aye! Don't leave us!" Happy repeated, staring at the blonde with the same pleading eyes. "Geez…" Lucy sighed, they weren't making it any easier. She prayed someone come help her in her situation, hoping that _someone___would understand her decision. She was surprised at who came to her rescue, though.

"Let bunny-girl go. She's doing it 'cuz she want ta protect you guys as well. Accept her decision." Gajeel said as he walked into the guild. "Gajeel!" many people gasped, shocked at his support for the determined girl. Lucy narrowed her eyes when she heard 'bunny-girl' but ignored the comment as someone finally understood why she was doing this. "Wait… aren't you surprised at all?" a guild member yelled out to him. Gajeel smirked, "Me? I knew since yesterday," he looked in Lucy's direction, "You should find better places than the guild hall to discuss important matters like that, bunny-girl." She glared at him angrily, and replied, "How was I supposed to know you weren't asleep? AND I'VE GOT A NAME!"

The guild laughed as the two glared daggers at each other. Erza put a hand on Lucy's shoulder and said in a serious tone, "I understand, Lucy. I was such a bad friend, not letting you do what you felt you needed to do. Please, hit me will you?" Everyone sweatdropped at that and Lucy gave a nervous chuckle. "Th-there's no need, Erza…"

After that, everyone slowly started accepting Lucy's decision, and held a goodbye party for her. Happy had managed to stop crying after Lucy promised him a bag of fish when she returned. Natsu and Gray both reluctantly agreed to let her train by herself, and Levy demanded she got her book finished. The blonde-haired mage laughed and chattered along with her nakama (her backpack shunned to a corner of the guild) for one last time before she would leave. All was good until Master came in and kindly reminded Lucy of something. "Hey Lucy, why are you still here? Aren't you going to be late?" Lucy looked at the clocked and yelled, "GAH! I'M GONNA MISS MY TRAINNNNNNNN!" She grabbed her backpack and ran towards the doors, her family closely trailing behind. She could hear Erza blaming herself, and Natsu yelling about how fun this was. People in the streets of Magnolia would turn and stare at the mob of people chasing Lucy. It was a very strange sight.


	2. Natsu's Strange Feeling

**Heya! I know I'm updating really early ^^ but I already had the second chapter almost finished before, I just needed to finish off the end and edit it XDD. Plus, I WAS SO HAPPY I GOT REVIEWS! SORRY IF U DON'T LIKE THIS CHAPTER! It's kinda more talking and no action… and I wrote Lisanna how I thought she'd be… I tried not to do OC… but enjoy anyways :P**

**I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does! :P **

_Three weeks later..._

The guild doors slammed open, revealing a very gloomy Natsu and Happy. The fire dragon slayer ignored the greetings of his fellow guild mates, and slumped into _her_ seat, sinking into a puddle of despair. Mira frowned at the sight, and motioned for Happy to come closer. "He's been like that ever since Lucy left, hasn't he?" Happy nodded slowly, showing his concern for his best friend. Lisanna, noticing something was up, joined the two in their conversation. Happy continued, "He's really quite, and rejected me when I asked him to go fishing with me! Why is he like that, Mira? Is he sick or something? Maybe he ate a really bad fish?" Mira and Lisanna giggled, catching the attention of Levy, Gray and Erza. Soon, they were all crowded around Mira's bar, talking in hushed whispers.

"Hey guys, don't you think Natsu's been awfully miserable lately?" Lisanna said, smirking.

"Hmph. Flame brain's better off crying like a baby."

"Gray! You do not speak of your nakama like that!"

"Y-y-y-yes, sir, E-e-erza!"

"Whatever! This is **love**, I tell you! LOVE!" Mira cried happily, using a handkerchief to dab at the tears in her eyes.

"Love? Who? That dense idiot? Impossible!" Gray replied, shocked.

"Aye! He can't tell the difference between a male and a female fish!"

"Er…no… Happy, I don't think that is related to what we're talking about… but… omg! It's Lu-chan, right! I'm so excited! This is exactly like the development between Arthur and Christy in the book - "

"Yes, Levy, we'd love to hear that, but another time! Right now we're talking about Lucy and Natsu!" Lisanna piped up, having the same sly smirk her sister had.

"Yes… everyone, that means… MATCHMAKING TIME!"

"Shh! He might hear us!" Levy cried impatiently, praying that Natsu had not snapped out of his trance.

"Pftt… ash for brain's so lost in his thoughts about Lucy he probably won't react to Erza's death glare…"

"What was that?!"

"N-n-n-nothing at a-a-a-all, Erza!"

"Anyways, to give Lucy the best chance at this, we must _educate_ Natsu on issues of love first!"

"But… Lisanna… didn't you have a crush on Natsu too?"

"EH?"

"No, not anymore, that was gone _ages_ ago! I don't think I'm patient enough to wait for Natsu like Lucy does! Hehehe… they will be…"

"So cute together!" Mira finished Lisanna's sentence for her, practically fainting from happiness.

"I see… indeed, they will be a good match. I agree on this couple. I happen to be very experienced in this topic, in fact. In my younger days, they called me the Matchmaking Devil."

"E-e-erza… that title… is a bit… I mean… Matchmaking _Devil_?"

"Huh? Gray, do you suspect my abilities?"

"Of course not!" Gray waved his hands frantically around, regretting what he said.

"Aye! All he has to do is give Lucy a BIG fish, right?"

No one answered Happy's question, and instead gave him weird looks.

"Wahh! Ignored again!" the blue cat cried, and flew back to the sulking Natsu.

"Heh. Squinty eyes' too dense to see his own feelings, poor Lucy. Why would she fall for such an idiot, anyways?"

"Love has no boundaries!" the take-over sisters and the bookworm squealed.

"Right… I don't understand girls at all..."

"Alright! Since it is settled, all of us will _educate_ Natsu on love, okay! I'll go talk to him first!" Lisanna shouted cheerfully, skipping to where the dragonslayer was sitting.

Natsu had his head rested on the table, when he saw a blur of blue heading towards him. He ignored it, not interested in what it was. Lately, all he ever thought about was Lucy, heck, he even dreamt of her! Maybe that weirdo's weirdness was rubbing off on him, he felt that his heart was being squeezed in an uncomfortable way every time he thought of her (which was always ^^). Did he catch a disease or something? He imagined of Lucy's bright smile, and felt warmed up instantly. How do you even warm up a _fire_ dragonslayer? And he was thinking of Lucy again! He sighed, and turned around, to come face-to-face with a pair of large eyes. "GAH!" he yelled, surprised.

"Natsu, you're acting weirder than Lucy! What's wrong? Did you eat some bad fish or something?" Happy asked, concern written all over his face.

"I don't know, Happy… I've been feeling strange, lately."

"Aye! Do you want to have some of my fish, then?"

"No thanks, buddy. It's just… I've been feeling strange whenever I think about Lucy…" They then heard a small 'kya!' and turned around to see a beaming white haired mage looking at them.

"Lisanna… hey…" Natsu said in an uninterested tone.

Lisanna giggled at the boy, it was just so obvious! She just needed to break the truth to him in an easy way that still got through his thick skull.

"Hey, Natsu! It seems that you've been quite gloomy lately! In fact, ever since Lucy left! What's wrong? Are you sick or something?"

"Yeah, maybe…"

"Well, describe the symptoms to me! Maybe I can help."

Sometime during their conversation, Happy had left, as Wendy had just come back from a job with Carla. He went to get his largest fish, and was now trying to tie up a pretty ribbon on it, with the help of Mira. _Jeez, even HAPPY is progressing faster than you, Natsu! If you're still so clueless by the time Lucy gets back, she's gonna be taken by somebody else!_ Lisanna thought, looking back at Natsu as he tried to explain what was wrong with him.

"Well… my heart has been thumping really quickly sometimes, and in other times, it feels like it's being squeezed tightly, and it's really uncomfortable! Also, there's this strange feeling in my tummy sometimes, like I ate a live fish and it's trying to get out! But then other times, it feels like I'm getting warmer, it's not a bad feeling, it's really comfortable, in fact."

Lisanna almost squealed and fainted at his detailed description. She managed to calm herself, and asked, "Natsu… these _symptoms_, when do they appear?"

"Hmm… whenever I think of Lucy? Oh, another symptom is that I can't stop thinking about that weirdo."

Then, Lisanna gave a whoop of joy. He was getting there, even if he didn't know what this _sickness_ was called, he admitted that he thought about Lucy! Natsu gave her a weird look, and she fake-coughed a bit before talking again.

"Natsu… I know what your sickness is."

"Really? What is it?"

"Erm… it's called love. "

"Love…?"

"Yes, love. It isn't really a sickness, and everyone feels it at some point of their life. It's when you like someone more than a nakama or family."

With this, the dense guy gave a confused look.

"How do you like someone more than a nakama?"

"Erm… well… you said the symptoms only happens when you're around Lucy, right? Well… that's because you are in love with her."

Natsu just gave Lisanna a blank look. She sighed. This was going to be a _long_ talk.


	3. Aria and Bob

**Hey guys! I'm updating again ^^ I see many liked the last chapter cuz it was funny and cute… well, maybe you'll like this one just as much! ^^ I was supposed to update later, in like a week or so, but since I finished, I might as well do it now! Oh, and... THANKYOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE REVIEWED, ETC! :3 Enjoy reading, and please review! **

**Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Mashima Hiro! But Aria and Bob, whom you will meet quite soon, belong to me! :P**

Far away from Fairy Tail, while Lisanna was trying to explain what love was to Natsu, a certain celestial mage sneezed. _Did I catch a cold? Nah… maybe everyone at the guild was talking about me! They better not be saying bad things about me behind my back… _She thought grumpily as she hiked through the forest. Now why was such a pretty young lady in the middle of a forest again? The same answer as to why she left her beloved family members. She was training. And what a smart girl she was, deciding transport was no good, and she needed to walk to wherever she needed to go, to increase her endurance. "At this rate, I'm never going to get out! It takes three days to travel to Skype (I know it's lame, but whatever ^^), and that's by TRAIN!" the blonde complained to herself. She sighed as she climbed over yet another giant boulder that was blocking her path._ If it was a year ago, I would have_ never_ chosen walking over trains. And I would have never been so stupid. Maybe I'd caught Natsu's idiocy. Speaking of which, how are they? I'm missing them already… especially that fire-breathing idiot… WAIT… STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM, LUCY! IT'S ONLY BEEN THREE WEEKS, AND YOU MISS THEM ALREADY? NO, NO, NO! Don't think about his smile! He's made it clear as day already that he is an absolutely dense idiot who doesn't know a SINGLE thing about love! _

While Lucy was having a mental battle in her head, she did not notice a large rock that was right in front of her, which resulted in a small 'eep!' and a _thud_. She had fallen face first on to the hard forest floor, and was getting up when she heard laughing. Someone was here in the forest, she wasn't alone.

"Who's there?" Lucy shouted at the general direction of the noise, looking around for anything suspicious. She heard more chuckles, and gave a small yelp of surprise when a dark blur suddenly jumped down from the top of a tree. She peered cautiously at the figure, to be surprised it was a girl that was younger than her by a couple of years. The girl had short brown hair that was tied up in two low pigtails with a side fringe which covered up her left eye. Her light blue eyes seemed to pierce right through you; it was cold and untrusting. She was quite tanned, and her face was unblemished apart from the three stitches in her left cheek. The girl was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a black half-sleeved jacket on top and comfortable shorts that matched it. On her hands was a pair of black leather fingerless gloves. She would have looked like a normal girl (ignoring the ice-cold eyes and the scar on her cheek), but what really made Lucy suspicious though, was a rather dangerous looking scythe the girl was carrying on her back. Lucy and took a few steps closer to the mysterious girl. "Hello, there," Lucy said, smiling warmly, "What's your name?" The girl smirked, and replied, "Why'd ya ask, blondie?" Lucy paused for a few seconds, waiting for the petite girl's answer to process through her head.

Lucy twitched in anger. Supressing the urge to strangle this cheeky brat, she replied, "Well, I was wondering if you were lost, that's all. You see, it's a bit dangerous to be walking alone in the woods, don't you think? There might be bandits or thugs around." she gave another, slightly more strained, smile. The girl looked at her for a second, and then completely cracked up and started laughing. She leaned on the tree for support, and clutched onto her stomach, tears (of laughter) rolling down her face. When she finished her laughing fit, she was panting, and attempted to answer Lucy's question. "I think… yer the one… who's lost… ya dumb blonde… dangerous? The woods? Pftt… I've lived 'ere… all my life… and thugs… and bandits… aint gonna… mess with me…" She took another look at the pissed off celestial mage and gave another laugh before talking again. "I mean… seriously? Talking to yerself, and trippin' over a rock? That's the first time I've seen someone _that_ messed up…" Lucy flushed red with embarrassment, and replied, "Sh-shut up. Who told you to eavesdrop anyways? And what are you, a stalker?"

"Pftt… like I'd stalk ya, drama queen."

"Wah? Hey!"

"I was here cuz this is _my_ woods, _my _home, and yer standing on _my_ property."

"Oh, really? Oops."

"Don't ya _oops_ me, blondie. Now if yer not lost, then hurry up and get yer sorry butt outta here."

"You know… for a girl your age, you've got a pretty big mouth."

"Ya think I care? Hurry up, before I draw my weapon."

"Eep! Okay, okay! I'm leaving! Jeez, no need to be so aggro."

As Lucy got her backpack up from the floor, a voice boomed across the sky.

"Aria! Where are you? I thought I told you to stay and keep watch! Did you slack off again?"

The girl turned around, a frown on her face. "Damn old geezer! How did he know I was here?"

The trees started shaking, and Lucy could feel the floor vibrating each step the whatever-it-was took. She shivered in fright, and back away a couple of steps. The dark shadow came closer, and closer. It finally stepped out into the clearing and it was…

… An elephant? Lucy's eyes almost popped out in surprise, _what the hell?_ The girl who was supposedly called Aria rolled her eyes. "Where the hell did ya get that, ya stupid cat?" _...cat?_ As Lucy was pondering on what Aria had meant, a brown cat had climbed down from the top of the elephant's head. "Aria Thunderhawk, I told you to keep watch! And who is this pretty young lady here?" This felt like déjà vu to Lucy, it reminded her of when she first went to Fairy Tail, and was so freaked out when she saw Master Makarov's giant form. it grew wings from its back and flew in front of the brown haired girl.

_Wait a second… the cat… spoke… wings… _

Aria smirked and looked at Lucy. "Just a random trespasser. I was gonna clean 'er up before yer came an' messed everythin' up. Look now, she's scared stiff." Lucy snapped out of her shock and stared at the flying cat that had square glasses, and a long, white beard. "An exceed? Ah right, you guys came down to Earthland with us, didn't you? I forgot you weren't in Edolas anymore…" The cat was the one in shock this time. "You… how do you know exceeds? Who are you?" His eyes narrowed in suspicion, and Aria put her hand on her scythe, ready to battle if she had to. Lucy put both her hands up and frantically waved it around, trying to calm the two down. "Hey, hey, relax! I'm not an enemy, okay? I'm Lucy from Fairy Tail!" They didn't move a bit, and that confused Lucy. "You don't remember Fairy Tail? Wow, you have a short memory… we helped you save the exceed race from Edolas' king, remember?" still no movement. "Erm… let me tell you from the start, then…"

_And then…_

"Ah… so that's what happened to Edolas…" the brown cat said, stroking his beard while pacing back and forth. Aria had fallen asleep when Lucy was recounting the Edolas incident, saying something along the lines of not calling her up even if the world was ending. Lucy looked at the old cat, then asked, "Are you really an exceed? If you are this old, then you shouldn't have been sent here at the time the queen decided to send the eggs down… but it doesn't seem like you knew about the crisis either…" The cat stopped his pacing and stared at her. "You are right, I wasn't there. You see, about 20 years ago, I accidentally fell down to Earthland. I was but a young and ignorant kitten then, exploring the dangerous world on my own, when a beautiful lady who looked a lot like you, kindly took me in. What was her name? It started with L as well… La… Lay… Lu… Luna? Luna… Liver… no… Stomach? No… Luna… Heart...phinia...? Ah, that's right. It was Luna Heartfin! Anyway, she took me in, and taught me all she knew, about life, about magic…"

"Magic?"

"Yes, magic. Aria knows magic as well, you know. She is a shadow mage. Great for assassination. I taught her magic. I may not look like it, but I'm a pretty good teacher."

"Really? Do you know anything about Celestial Spirit magic?"

"Actually, that magic happens to be the one I know most on. Miss Luna was a celestial mage as well. She had quite a few golden keys."

"Wow! Really? Can you teach me then? I came out here to train anyway. Please!"

"Hm… alright, Luigi. I'll train you."

"IT'S LUCY!"

"Oh, sorry, Lulu."

"… Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Doing what? Oh look, it's quite late. You should go to bed now, it you want me to train you. We wake up every day at sunrise."

"Huh? Sleep here? In the FOREST? With… with no blanket? No bed?"

"Yes, Lauren, this is how you get stronger. Now stop whining, and go to bed."

"IT'S LUCY, L - U - C - Y! Jeez, you stupid cat! Oh right, I didn't catch your name."

"It's Bob."

"…"

"SERIOUSLY?"

And with that, Lucy had met two new friends (three if you count the elephant) plus she now had a trainer! Tingling with excitement, she ignored the fact that there were probably bugs crawling around on the floor, and that it was cold, and maybe there were some hungry animals, and bandits… she ignored it all, and instead directed her thoughts on her training, and the mysterious Luna Heartfin. She was curious as to who the lady was, she would have been quite strong if she had a few golden keys, and had an inkling suspicion that Bob had in fact, gotten Luna's name wrong.


	4. Training Starts!

**Hey guys! XDD I've updated, yet again! Hope you like this chapter, I certainly enjoyed writing it ^^ And thanks to all who reviewed :3 I got more than ten reviews!**

**I don't own Fairy Tail, HIro Mashima does ^^ but I own Aria, Bob, and Bob's bushy beard ;P**

_Natsu slowly leaned down, his eyes closed. I blushed heavily as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I closed my eyes as well, and placed both my hands around his neck. Our lips were an inch apart… and…_

"WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT!"

Lucy groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, to find a pair of cold blue ones staring back. "KYAAA!" Aria clamped both of her hands on her ears and winced. "Yeesh, you could probably scare away a DRAGON if you yell like that." Lucy pouted in anger, and then realised something when she heard the girl mention 'dragon'. _I… I WAS DREAMING ABOUT NATSU! WE WERE ABOUT TO… OMG! CRAP! I DO NOT LIKE HIM LIKE THAT!_ Lucy vigorously shook her head to clear herself of her thoughts. Aria raised an eyebrow and looked at her questioningly. "You're a weirdo, you know. You sleep really weird, heck, you even _sleep talk_. Mumbling something like, 'Natsu, my Natsu'… and then you turn as red as a tomato when you wake up… and now you're shaking your head for no reason…"

Lucy blushed even more, she didn't know she talked in her sleep. "Sh-shut up, you meanie. I'm not a weirdo!" Aria smirked, it was a perfect chance to tease her. "Soooo… who's this Natsu guy you were dreaming about? Your boyfriend?"

"NO WAY THAT DENSE IDIOT IS MY B-B-BOYFRIEND!"

"Oh… so you liiiiiiike him, right?"

"NO!" she replied, getting redder and redder by the second. The way the girl rolled her tongue like that reminded her of a certain annoying cat. She looked around for something to change the subject with. "Where's Bob?"

"Ho… changing the subject, are we? Bob's at the waterfall, hurry up and get ready. We're gonna head there in fifteen minutes."

"Fine… but what are we gonna do there?"

"Hah… you'll see…"

_And then…_

"EHHHH?" Lucy shouted in shock, looking from the girl to the cat. "C-c-c-could you p-p-please r-repeat that?"

"Could you please jump off the waterfall, and get me some fish? I'm sorry, we have no fishing material, just get it with your hands."

Lucy glared at the old cat, looking for any signs of a joke or lie. She found nothing of the sort, and Aria taking off her shoes and jacket wasn't very reassuring either. "You… are you serious?"

"Of course I am. I want at least ten fish from each of you. Plus, get your own amount of fish for your breakfast as well."

"HAH?"

Aria had jumped off. Lucy shrieked in terror, and raced to the edge in worry. She couldn't see the bottom of the waterfall! Was her new friend okay?

"Stop stalling and get to it!" Bob exclaimed, and pushed her over the edge.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A! YOUUUUUUU DAMMMMNN NEKOOOOOOOOO!"

_Splash_

"You were slow, blondie. Hurry up, I've caught three already!"

Lucy had plunged into the icy cold water. She resurfaced, gasping for air, to see Aria bent down in the water and looking for fish.

"ARIA! You're alright! You had me so worried!"

"Pfttt. Like I'd die from something like _that_. I've been training with the stupid geezer for three years, after all. We've been doing this everyday."

Lucy looked at the petite girl in shock. Such vigorous training, since she was a child? She shook her head, and got up, water at knee level. She absent-mindedly touched her belt for her keys, to find they weren't where they usually were.

"GAH! WHERE ARE MY KEYS? OH NO, DID I DROP THEM IN THE WATER? AQUARIUS' GONNA KILL ME!"

Aria rolled her eyes. "They're with Bob, of course. Yeesh, do I really have to stay with such a noisy idiot for the next two years?"

"Sh-shut up, you jerk!"

_And then..._

"Huh? You only got two, Lucy! And it took you two hours? Ah, thankyou, Aria! You got… 27… 28… 29! Woah! FISH!"

Lucy could only gawk at the little girl. Aria turned around to see that she was staring, and poked her tongue out at her. Lucy 'humphed' and crossed her arms, muttering something along the lines of, "you meanie".

Bob nodded his head in approval, and took twenty fish. He threw the remaining eleven (including Lucy's two fish) to the two girls to share. He took three from the pile and dropped the rest back down the waterfall.

"Hey! Why did you throw the rest back in?"

"Hm? How can a cat as beautiful as me eat twenty fish alone? You silly girl!"

Lucy twitched in anger. "Then why did you make us catch twenty?"  
"I miscalculated how much I could eat."

"HAH? YOU DAMN NEKO COME BACK HERE-"

"Pftt… if you can't even handle that little job, you should just leave, blondie."

"And why aren't you pissed? You caught the twenty!"

"I think of it as training, idiot."

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO MUTTERING ABOUT? HURRY UP, WE NEED TO START!"

_Meanwhile…_

Natsu growled in frustration, Lisanna's words ringing in his ears. What the hell was this _love_? _Am I really in love? I do think of Lucy quite a lot… and my face gets red when I think about her… Igneel said something like having a mate? But you have to kiss! And that's gross! Well… it doesn't seem too bad if it's with Lucy… ARGHH! Too confusing! _

"Ah! Natsu, are you ok? I've never seen you have such a look before…"

"I'm okay, Happy… just thinking about something…"

"Hah? Flame-brain's THINKING? Such an idiot can't possibly think."

"Waddya say, droopy eyes?"

"I said you're an idiot, squinty eyes! Gotta problem?"

"Wanna go?"

"Why not-"

"Natsu! Gray! Do I see you fighting!"

"N-n-no! Of course not, Erza!"

"Aye! Natsu was just thinking!"

"Huh? Natsu, since when did you think?"

"Must be thinking about Lucy! Hehe…"

"L-L-Lisanna! I was NOT thinking about L-L-Lucy…"

"See? You're blushing!"

"ARGH! WHATEVER!"

_And then..._

Lucy sighed as she laid down on the hard forest floor. The stupid cat had made her and Aria carry boulders that were double their size until noon! The petite girl had managed just fine, she had even added weights on her legs and arms! But Lucy was not one of super strength. It had ended up with some 'bam' s and 'eep!'s and 'OUCH's. At noon, they had to go collect forest berries and mushrooms for lunch. She had picked up some poisonous ones… and somehow she had eaten a laughing mushroom… and that wasn't the end of the training! When they were eating, Bob had 'accidentally' put a pack of hungry wolves with them… and requested them not to hurt them as they were his friends. They ran around the forest until sunset… when the wolves 'mysteriously' disappeared, and they had to jump back into the waterfall to catch more fish… Bob and Aria just _had_ to tell ghost stories as they ate, Lucy was frightened to death right now! But, with all the chaos the whole day, she felt her eyelids slowly drooping… and fell into a dreamless sleep.


	5. The Return

**Hey guys! Sorry, this one is a bit short! I'm kinda stuck, plz help! I dunno how Natsu should confess… I was thinking since this is **_**Natsu**_** we're talking about, it should be really casual and random… but yeah, enjoy! **

**Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me, it's Mashima Hiro's! If it was mine, it'd have so much more Nalu moments ^^**

_Two years later…_

It was almost sunrise, and Lucy woke up just in time to see a giant rock dropping down towards her. She rolled to her left, the rock missing her narrowly. "YOU STUPID NEKO!" Bob just stared at Lucy, smiling in a weird way. "You're finally able to dodge them while you sleep, huh."

"I told you not to do that! There is seriously something wrong with you, Bob! Usually people (more like cats :P) don't just drop boulders on other people who are sleeping!"

"Well, you've had worse from me. Hehe."

"Humph."

"It's really been two years, huh? You're leaving today, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Are you gonna miss me?"

Aria groaned, and got up, rubbing her eyes. "No way in hell we gonna miss you, blondie. I'm glad you're leaving. Hell, it'd be so much more peaceful."

"What did you say, kid?"

"Hah?! Did you just call me kid, weakling?"

"Now, now. Lucy, you're leaving today! Please don't get into random fights and destroy the forest again."

Lucy and Aria's 'friendship' had developed in a rather interesting way. After the first few weeks of Aria's taunts and her constant insults, something in Lucy had finally snapped. It didn't help that Aria was inches shorter than her but was better at her in everything. So Lucy threw a bunch of not-so-nice comments and insults back to the very pissed off girl. It had ended up with half the forest being cut down… and a crying Bob.

"Go and pack up your things, Lucy! You're going back to your home, Fairy Tail!"

_And then..._

Fairy Tail was rowdy, like usual. Master was in his office, sorting the papers (complaints from the Council), when he felt a sudden change in the magical power around Magnolia. He stiffened, the source of the change was heading this way. Whoever, or whatever it was, he needed to be on guard. That person had an extremely large amount of magical power, maybe even more than him. And then, it disappeared. It caught him off guard, for such a large force of power to suddenly vanish like that was really suspicious. Maybe it was just his old age? He really hoped so.

Gajeel paused as he suddenly felt an extremely large magical force. His eyes narrowed, everyone else at the guild was just partying too much to notice it. Mirajane might have noticed, if she had not fainted from seeing Elfman and Evergreen together. Erza might have as well, but she was on a job with Natsu, Gray and Happy. So, the only person left was the Master. He walked up the Master's office, and kicked the door open.

"Hello, Gajeel."

"Yo, old geezer. You felt it too, right."

Master dropped his usual happy-go-lucky expression, and looked at the iron dragon slayer seriously. "Yes. It's approaching. I'm not sure if it's a friend or foe, so don't tell them yet. Just stay on guard."

Gajeel nodded, and headed back to his usual spot. Even though the magical power had disappeared, he still had his sense of smell. Whoever it was, smelt oddly familiar. The mysterious person had a smell of vanilla, strawberry and… the earth? How strange… it was a familiar, yet new smell… and it was coming to Fairy Tail.

_And then..._

"Ah! Finally, I'm here! Magnolia hasn't changed one bit since I left! I wonder if everyone missed me?" said a hooded figure as she stood in front of the guild. She took a deep breath, and pushed open the guild doors. Three iron daggers came flying towards her head. She ducked, and stuck her hands out to catch them. "My, my. Is this how you greet people who enter the guild, Gajeel?" she said slowly as she inspected the daggers in her hands. No one seemed to have notice, they were still partying. Gajeel smirked at the mysterious person. "Nope, only to suspicious little like you. So tell me, who are you and what are you doing here?"

She gave a small smirk and pulled the hood off her. Gajeel fell down in shock. No wonder the smell was so familiar! "B-bunny girl?"


	6. The New Lucy

**Hi, everyone! I hope you liked the last chapter, I got more reviews for that one than any other ^^! I hope you review for this one as well, I really like imagining this ^^! Lucy is just a **_**teeny**_** bit more violent now than two years ago. Haha! XDD **

**Well, I don't own Fairy Tail! Hiro Mashima does, and I hope he writes the new chapter soon, I'm dying here! Anyways, enjoy, my fellow readers :D**

**p.s. thankyou, ACLyoko for pointing out the mistake with the train and the luggage, I fixed it XDD if you still don't get it, or find another prob, tell me ;D AND THANKYOU ALL WHO R & R**

"B-bunny girl?"

Lucy chuckled a bit, then chucked the daggers back at Gajeel. They hit the wall behind him, inches above where his head was, in a neat row. "No sh*t, Sherlock. I'm back."

The iron dragon slayer was still on the floor, shocked. The girl hadn't changed much, except now she tied her hair up in a ponytail instead of her usual cute hairstyle, and she was wearing a black tank top with skinny jeans. Her keys were nowhere to be seen on her belt, nor were her whip. A dozen of questions formed in his head, but the first thing he said was, "You've gotten quite rude these past two years, bunny-girl." Lucy stared at him for a few moments before bursting out in laughter. This caught the attention of a few other guild members, and they gasped in shock. "L… Lu-chan?" a blue-haired bookworm said quietly. Lucy whipped her head around to see her good friend staring at her, with tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm back, Levy-chan!" And with that, the crying girl ran up to her friend and tackled her to the floor. "Wha? Levy-chan, calm down!" she laughed, trying to pry her friend off her so she could get up. Everyone ran up to her, extremely excited to have a nakama back after so long. Gajeel got up, even a tsundere like him couldn't help but smile at her return. Squirt had been slightly quieter when she left because there was no one to talk to about her books anymore. He got the iron daggers out of the wall, _heh, it seems she's improved with her weaponry, at least_, and then remembered why he had initially thrown them at her. _No way, bunny-girl was the one who had that magical force? But I don't feel it now… and she can't improve that quickly! Maybe I sniffed out the wrong person? I've never done that before though…_

_And then..._

Lucy had managed to calm everyone down, and they had started partying. Celebration for the return of a family member! She giggled, watching her nakama from her old seat, nothing had changed at all! It was still as rowdy as ever, and she was sure they still created havoc wherever they went.

"Come to think of it, where's Natsu, Gray, Erza and Happy? I got Happy the bag of fish I promised…"

"Oh, they're on a job! So, Lu-chan! Did you finish the novel!"

"I sure did, Levy-chan! On the rare occasion that I was allowed to rest, I somehow managed to get it done!"

"Really? Yay! Where is it?"

"Right here." Lucy fumbled around with her backpack, and finally took out a stack of papers, handing it to her excited friend.

"Wow! Thanks! Wait… what do you mean, when you were allowed?"

A dark aura seeped out from Lucy when Levy asked the question. She started sweating, Lucy only showed her angry side occasionally!

"Oh… _that_… You see, a few weeks after I left… I met some _people_… and they agreed to train me…"

"Oh?" Levy was confused, wasn't that a good thing? "So why do you seem… unhappy about that?"

"Hahaha… well, Levy, let me tell you the whole story. The two people, er… no… the kid and the cat I met were good mages, so I asked them to train me. I had no idea what I was getting into. The cat was our trainer, and he made us jump off waterfalls, _taste test _for him to see if the food was poisonous or not, he dropped giant boulders on us while we were sleeping, we carried giant boulders up a friggin _mountain_, SWAM with rather dangerous looking piranhas, ran from wolves, boars, and the _creatures_ till midnight, avoided avalanches IN THE SNOW and not to mention sparring without magic against the stupid kid with her stupid scythe!" Lucy finished, shouting her head off. She was getting more and more pissed off every time she thought of the idiot duo. Levy sweatdropped at her friend's rant, and _what type of training is this?_ "I-i-it seems like you had i-i-it pretty h-hard Lu-chan…"

"Ya think. And having the stupid kid throw her damn insults at me daily didn't help at all! And to think that damn neko had the NERVE to TAKE MY KEYS."

Most of the guild were listening on their conversation, and most of them were thinking the same thing, _Lucy's scary… as scary as Erza!_

"Doing such deadly training is MANLY!"

The next thing they knew, the poor white haired man was upside down, with his head stuck in the ground, and Lucy was returning to her seat. They all gulped. Mirajane just smiled, "Please don't go destroying the guild, Lucy."

"Gomen, Mira."

Mirajane handed a glass of water to Lucy, and she gladly took it and gulped it down. "But there were good things, too. I improved physically a LOT because of that hell. And I learnt a new form of celestial magic! It was about half a year ago, the stupid neko gave back my precious keys to me, and he ordered me to go to the celestial realm. It figures you can actually stay there! He told me to just use my magic and convert it into energy, and have in synch with the celestial realm's magic, and blah blah blah, so I could breathe there. (Note: In my fanfic, one earth day is a fortnight on the celestial realm. This is for convenience's sake. :P) So, I managed to really up my magical power, and while I was there, the Spirit King decided to let Loke teach me a bunch of neat tricks. Like this!"

Lucy held out her right hand, and it started glowing before a bright, yellow orb of light enveloped it. Many gasped, wasn't celestial magic just summoning the Gate Keys? The proud girl sensed their confusion and gave a bright smile. "Cool, right? This is apparently Lost Magic. It used to be taught to celestial mages, but the last teacher died decades ago, and only celestial spirits knew. But, to learn it, you will have to go to the Celestial Realm, and no one was able to do that. I'm surprised that cat knew about it."

Everyone at the guild looked at her in shock. Cana, who was yet again drinking, realised something. "Hey, when you said a _cat_ trained you… you don't mean…"

"Yeah, an exceed. I was quite surprised myself."

"Jeez, Lucy. What have you been doing these two years? It seems like you went to hell and back."

"Yes I did. And Mira, do you mind cooking something DELICIOUS? I haven't had anything other than fish and berries for the two years!"

Everyone sweatdropped at that, all of them forming questions in their head. "Where were you training, Lucy? You mentioned waterfalls, and mountains..." Lisanna asked, curiosity showing clearly in her eyes. Lucy was gobbling down the food, she was eating even faster than Natsu and Happy _together_, and that was saying something. Anime tears were streaking down her face from happiness. "Huh? Di gidant dell yu? (Huh? I didn't tell you?) Gi wad drainang ad da bores (I was training at a forest)." Everyone sighed, Lucy had changed quite a bit, with all the swearing, evil aura that rivalled Erza, and the confident air around her (not to mention the way she eats…)

_And Then…_

"Bwah! That was nice! I'm so full!"

"Aye!"

"Heh. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have even tasted the soup."

"Waddya say, ice freak?"

"Huh? You should be thanking me, flame brain!"

"Natsu, Gray! Do I see you fighting?"

"N-n-not at all, E-e-erza! We're b-best f-f-friends, right?"

"A-a-aye sir!"

"Aye! Happy no. 2 is here!"

"It's good seeing you two being good friends. Sometimes, even friends fight, but _don't cross the line_. Do you understand?"

"A-a-aye!"

"Good. We should be heading back soon. Back to Fairy Tail!"

_Meanwhile..._

Gajeel stared at Lucy with an unreadable expression. _Just now, when bunny-girl made that orb thing, that magical power was the same as the one from before… so my smell didn't deceive me… no way, right? In just two years, she managed to… _He walked up to Lucy, and tapped her shoulder. She turned around. "Bunny-girl… fight me."

"…"

"EHH?" the whole guild's loud shout of surprise could be heard throughout Magnolia.


	7. Team Natsu Returns

**Kyaaa! (Squealing like a fan girl) I LOVED writing this chapter! NALU FOREVER! ****Ahem… yeah… enjoy :D you'll get what I mean when you read it ;) And thankyou all for reviewing, supporting and following! :D And Lucy vs. Gajeel is not this chapter, it's the next one XDD**

**Fairy Tail is not mine, it's Hiro Mashima's XDD**

Lucy stared at Gajeel, her eyes narrowing at what he said. _Lucy would never do something like accepting a challenge! She didn't even join in on our normal guild brawls!_ Practically everyone in the guild thought. The iron dragon slayer waited for her answer, he honestly wasn't sure if she would accept or not. She _had _changed quite a bit. She smirked a bit, and burst out laughing. Gajeel's eyebrows twitched a bit in annoyance, _she just came back, no need to kill her…_ When she finished her laughing fit, she was clutching her stomach, "Sure, metal head. S'cool how you wanna challenge me even if it's obvious that **I**will win." There was silence, and then the offended dragon slayer started shaking in anger. "**What… did you just say? As if a **_**bunny-girl**_** will beat ME!**" He lunged at her, but she swiftly got out of her seat and effectively kicked him in the *ahem* (if you don't get it, please don't ask). He howled in pain, clutching his *ahem* and threw a bunch of fresh insults at the girl. She smirked, and replied, "Well, let's settle this tomorrow, shall we? At noon, outside the guild." With that, she picked up her backpack and walked towards the guild doors. "It's getting late, I should be going home now. See ya, everyone!"

Everyone stood shocked, and very much frozen, trying to process everything that just happened. Lucy, the happy, bubbly girl that would shriek in terror when she saw a _bug_, had just insulted Gajeel purposefully, accepted his challenge to a fight, and kicked him in his *ahem*. Many of the guys winced at that and looked in pity at the poor dragon slayer who was trying, but failing miserably, to stand up. At least Levy was trying to help him up. They made a mental note to _not anger this Lucy_ _or you're screwed._ They shook their heads at the absurdity of what just happened, and continued to celebrate for the return of a nakama.

_And then… _

A certain pink-haired mage stumbled out of the train, pale-faced, and rather sick. "I'm… never… riding… trains… again… "

"Pftt. You're so pathetic, ash for brains. We're already off the train."

"Waddya… say… ice … princess…"

"It's okay, Natsu. Everyone has a weakness. Would you like to ride on top of my luggage?"

"No… thanks… Er-" before the poor boy had the chance to finish his sentence, a scarlet haired woman had knocked him out, and placed him on top of the enormous amount of luggage she was carrying. Gray sweatdropped at that, and if it was anyone but Natsu, he would have felt sorry for them. "Well, we got Lucy's rent money. Should we head to her apartment first or the guild?"

"Hmmm… we can pay it off tomorrow. I'm going to Fairy Hills first."

"Okay then."

"Aye! When we get home, I want a BIG fish."

"…"

"Ignored again!"

_And then… _

Lucy yawned, and slowly opened her eyes. Ah, that's right. She was in a soft bed! And she was back at her apartment. She kind of missed getting woken up by Bob and Aria, NOT LIKE SHE MISSED THE DAMN KID AT ALL. (technically, Aria is now 16, and not a kid) She sighed, and directed her thoughts to happier things, like when she realised yesterday, that Team Natsu had been paying off her rent for the two years! That was just so cute and nice of them! Apparently, they were meant to be returning by today, she couldn't wait! She slipped on some clothes, got ready, and headed for the guild.

Lucy was munching contently on some pancakes at the guild when the doors slammed open. "WE'RE BAAAAAAACK!" Her heart skipped a beat at the voice. _That's Natsu!_ He sniffed at the air, it smelt like vanilla… strawberries… and… the earth? His eyes widened with realisation. This smell! Even though it was slightly different, it was Lucy's smell! "Lu… cy… ?" he managed to whisper. He whipped his head to Lucy's seat. His heart skipped a beat to see a blonde haired girl sitting there. He felt his mouth twitch upwards into a grin so wide he felt his mouth was going to rip. If it did, he really didn't care. He raced towards the blonde and wrapped his arms around her tightly, face buried in her silky, smooth hair. How he missed that lovely smell, that silky hair, and that beautiful smile! "I missed you, Luce!"

Lucy felt the heat rise up to her cheeks, and returned the hug he gave her. They stayed there for a while, content and comfortable in each other's arms. Some guild members just smirked and gave them a knowing look, others whistled, and some even shouted, "Get a room!" Mira had fainted with happiness (Lisanna currently frantically trying to revive her). Lucy heard a much too familiar and much too annoying voice. "They liiiiiiiiiiike each other…" She let go of Natsu immediately, her face now a brilliant shade of red. Natsu just gave her a goofy smile, a slight shade of pink on his own cheeks. "S… stupid neko…" she muttered, clearly embarrassed.


	8. Gajeel vs Lucy!

**Hey everyone! I'm sorry I updated a little later today ^^ well, I hope you understand the fight and can picture it… I'm not really good at explaining :PBUT ENJOY! AND REVIEW! HAHAHA**

**FAIRY TAIL AINT MINE, HIRO MASHIMA-SAMA OWNS IT! XDD AND HE UPDATED THIS WEEK ;3**

Erza and Gray walked in to the guild, to find Natsu and Happy chatting happily with… LUCY? They both froze in shock, after all, the cheerful girl hadn't written to them in two years, so they had no idea when she was going to come back. Gray was the first one to recover, and walked up to the table they were sitting at slowly. "Lucy?"

Lucy looked up to see Gray staring at her. She beamed at him, got up, and gave him a quick hug. "Gray! Long time no see!" _It really is Lucy!_ He chuckled, "You're back!"

He was so happy to have Lucy back. It was so weird doing jobs with Team Natsu without her, she was the sanest out of the whole group, and the only person he could properly have a conversation with without dying of fear (Erza) or starting a fight with (Flame-brain). "Gray… your clothes… I see you haven't gotten rid of that habit, huh?" Lucy said while laughing at him. He jumped in shock, somehow, in the middle of talking to Lucy, he had stripped again! He headed off to find them. Ah right, Lucy also constantly reminded him when he had accidentally stripped.

When Gray left, Erza recovered. Before Lucy realised what was happening, she felt her head slam into Erza's armour as the scarlet haired mage pulled her in for a hug. "Ouch… at least take off your armour when you're hugging, Erza!" Lucy giggled. Though Erza wasn't the type to show her emotions usually , she was delighted that Lucy had returned. Out of everyone in Team Natsu, Lucy was the only one who had talked to her without becoming Happy No. 2. Sure, Lucy was still quite scared of her, but she had admired her more and treated her like a sister instead of a captain. "I'm glad you're back, Lucy. I see you have become stronger. Indeed, I won't be sure of my skills if you fought me." Lucy sweatdropped at that. Even if she might be able to take on Erza, she was still quite frightened by her death glares.

_And then… _

Lucy was scarfing down some pancakes with whipped cream at the guild bar, talking with Team Natsu. She had a feeling she was forgetting something, but shook it off. "Lucy, why didn't you send us any letters?" She swallowed, and looked up, "I wanted to! But I was stuck training in a stupid forest with a stupid kid and her stupid cat." They looked at her in disbelief, all thinking, _I never knew Lucy used that type of language… _They were still contemplating on the way Lucy spoke when there was a loud _**CRASH!**_

They turned around to look at the guild doors (Lucy still had half a pancake stuffed in her mouth), to see a ticked off iron dragon slayer. When he spoke, you could hear the menace, which made many people shiver. "Bunny-girl… weren't YOU the one who told me… noon, outside the guild? IT WAS NOON, AN HOUR AGO!" Lucy swallowed her pancake, a light bulb switching on in her head. "Ah… I forgot. My bad." with that, she turned around, and continued eating. Gajeel strolled up to her (a giant vein popped) and glared at her. "_Ah… I forgot. My bad._" he mimicked her voice. "THAT'S ALL YOU GOT TO SAY TO A PERSON WHO WAITED STUPIDLY OUTSIDE THE GUILD FOR AN HOUR?"

"Calm your farm, bro. Just wait till I finish these pancakes, will ya?"

"… YOU… LITTLE…"

He could suddenly feel a rather cold, menacing aura directed towards him. He looked around to see Erza glare at him intently. "Gajeel… Lucy just got back… give her some time to rest… and would you like to explain what this… _meeting… _is about? It's not a _date_… is it? Levy won't be too happy…"

When Natsu heard the word, _date_ he felt strange, like there was something squeezing his heart. He suddenly wanted to kill Gajeel, and get him as far away from Lucy as he could. What was this? Lisanna and Mira mentioned something like this before… was it called gelosy? … Jealousy! Ah… that's right… but he couldn't be _jealous_… could he?

Lucy finished her plate of pancakes and replied for the terrified Gajeel. "Nah, Erza. Not a date. He just wanted to fight me. All righty, I finished! Let's do this." Lucy said, getting up. Gray gave her a worried look. "Lucy… you're fighting against Gajeel? Are you sure about this?"

She just gave him a bright smile, "No problem at all! I can kick his ass anytime!"

Gajeel twitched in anger. "We'll see…"

_And then… _

Most of the guild members had gathered outside to watch the fight, and were already placing bets. Lucy and Gajeel were facing each other, both with wide grins on their faces. Surprisingly, Lucy seemed to be enjoying this. "Hmmm… lady's first, bunny-girl." Lucy's grin stretched wider when he mentioned it. "Ah, really now? Just don't regret it later." Suddenly, her belt started glowing, and when it ended, in her hands were two gold keys. "Open, gate of the lion, maiden… LEO, VIRGO!" the two summoned spirits popped out, Loki starting to flirt and Virgo asking for 'punishment'. Everyone sweatdropped. Even though they were strong spirits, they were weird. "Virgo, Loki, the usual!" Lucy cried, running towards Gajeel. Loki followed his master. "Lion's Brilliance!" he cried, and a bright light appeared that blinded everyone. When they could see again, Virgo had turned into her gorilla form and was holding Gajeel down. While Gajeel was struggling with Virgo, Loki used his Regulas Impact, which hit the dragon slayer right across his face. Virgo let go, and Gajeel was sent flying.

"Woah! Lucy, that's so cool!" Natsu said in awe. Everyone nodded in agreement. Lucy had gotten really strong! Gajeel got back up and wiped the bit of blood from his mouth. "Eh, you sure you should use two spirits at a time? And besides, you're still hiding behind your spirits, aren't you?" A giant vein popped on Lucy's head. She twitched slightly. "Damn you friggin asshole. Fine. I'll show you!" she screamed, leaping towards him. "Don't do that, Lucy! Keep your cool!" Erza demanded. Loki, who was standing back, quite relaxed, just smirked. "Just watch, Erza."

Lucy's belt had started glowing again. Loki and Virgo went back to the Celestial realm, and this time, Lucy was holding two long swords. Gajeel was surprised, he did NOT expect that. He turned his arms into iron, and blocked Lucy's two swords. She jumped back as he tried to kick her with his iron legs. _She's really fast… I should finish this quickly… _And she disappeared, to reappear right behind him (I know, cliché, but yeah I liked that idea ^^) He cursed, and elbowed her, causing her to stagger a bit. "Iron dragon's roar!" he yelled, releasing his attack. When he finished his roar, he realised that she was gone, again. He heard chanting somewhere.

_Survey the Heaven, Open the Heaven..._

_All the stars, far and wide..._

_Show me thy appearance..._

_With such shine._

_Crap! Where is she?_

_O Tetrabiblos... _

_I am the ruler of the stars..._

_Aspect became complete..._

_Open thy malevolent gate._

_Oh, I'm in deep sh*t!_ As he looked around frantically, Lucy jumped down from a tree.

_O 88 Stars of the heaven... _

_Shine!_

_**Urano Metria!**_

Chaos ensued, and Lucy's powerful spell blasted the whole area. As the smoke cleared, they saw Lucy knelt down, panting heavily. Gajeel was no where in sight. And then, from the ground, a hand shot up. A few girls shrieked, but soon realised it was the iron dragon slayer. He was very tattered, but otherwise okay. "Yo, bunny-girl. I see you are quite tired, hmm? This is why you don't randomly attack without strategy. I guess it's my win." Lucy only chuckled. "I guess I have to use _that_, huh? Damn, I was hoping I didn't need to…" As she spoke she fumbled with her left earring. Everyone was confused. What was she doing in the middle of a fight?

As soon as Lucy took off her left earring, a giant amount of magic power surged through her. Her body started glowing for a while (I know, a lot of glowing XDD), and when it stopped, she was on her feet, magical power completely revived. Gajeel almost fell in shock. _This was the power I felt yesterday! It WAS bunny-girl! OMG I'm in a REALLY bad position! _

"Okay, time to show my true powers, _Gajeel. _Better be ready!" The light engulfed her hands (like an orb), and she once again ran towards Gajeel. She was faster, much faster. Gajeel could hardly keep up. He was barely dodging the whatever-it-is. Lucy ducked a punch from Gajeel, and swiped her leg, which flipped him onto his back. He rolled backwards, "Iron dragon's club!" "Celestial slash!" Lucy joined both her hands above her head, the glow on her hands turned into a giant orb, and made a slashing movement downwards.

Lucy was hit in the stomach, Gajeel slashed across his chest. He felt as if his magical power was flowing away as well as his blood. _What the? _Lucy smirked. "Feeling tired? Then maybe we should end this, hmm?" She flipped back away from Gajeel's iron leg. Gajeel couldn't move anymore. _Crap! _She rushed forwards, everyone was anticipating what type of magic she would use this time. "LU-CY… KICK!"

"…"

_Of all attacks to use… she does LUCY KICK? _

She landed gently, and folded her arms across her chest. "I win."


	9. Magical Limiter

**Hello to everyone! I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday, I was really busy! Anyways, hope you like this chapter, I'll try and update everyday. SEE YA AND ENJOY! AND PLZ REVIEW XDD**

**I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.**

Lucy was contently munching on some watermelon with her guild mates. "Luuuuuuuuucyyyyyyy… don't eat ALL of it yourself!" Natsu whined. Since Lucy had come back, she had been quite… erm… _protective_ about her food… so Natsu and Happy could no longer steal it off her. "No way, get your own food." she snapped, swatting the hand that was edging towards her watermelon away. "Come to think of it, Lucy, what's up with your belt and earrings? They're so cool! They were glowing, and it was like your keys suddenly appeared with a _woosh!_ And stuff like that!" Natsu said happily, making weird movements like a child. "Mmm… I bought the belt from a magical shop, it's called the Exquip Belt. For mages who use a lot of weapons but don't have equip magic use it. All you need to do is channel a bit of magical energy into the belt to get the weapon you want." Natus just nodded his head. "Ah… I see… "

"… you don't get it, do you?"

"Nope."

Erza, who was sitting two seats away, eating strawberry cake, stopped and looked up, mildly interested in the conversation. "That's rather impressive. Was your earring like that as well? Did it store magical energy for you so you could use it? How do you charge it back up?" Lucy fidgeted a bit at the question. "Uh… ummm… y-y-yeah… I g-g-guess… it… is f-from… a shop… maybe… " Gray, who was walking up to them (along with Juvia who was timidly standing next to him with a giant blush on her face) frowned. "You know, Lucy… you're really bad at lying." Lucy stood up a did a Lucy kick on him. "Shut up! I w-w-wasn't l-lying." Juvia shrieked and ran over to her Gray-sama, who was kicked halfway across the guild.

Master Makarov walked up to where Lucy was sitting with a grim expression. "Magical Limiter." was all her said, yet she froze up immediately with an unreadable expression on her face. "Magical Limiter… an object that steals enormous amounts of magical energy from the user, and stores it away for emergencies. Lucy… those are forbidden, are they not? The council banned them, they were too dangerous to the user. When you put it on, the Limiters took too much energy, and it ended up killing almost all of the mages who used it. If not, they just kept eating your magical supply because it needed it to keep the magic it stored contained. Even I couldn't keep one on for more than a week." Lucy sighed, and turned slowly to face Master. Everyone in the guild was quiet now, worried about the celestial mages' wellbeing.

"Yes… that's true… I actually have two Limiters, the left and the right earring. That's why they look different." Erza stared at Lucy for a while. "Take them off, Lucy, _now_." Lucy shook her head, "Let me finish. I keep the Limiters on because I _have_ to. I have too much magical energy, I can't control all of it at once. When I was training in the Celestial Realm, one time I accidentally stayed too long, and my magical power was gone before I realised. I was suffocating there, when something inside of me _clicked_. And then suddenly, I got all this magical energy, it was awesome and all, but my body couldn't handle it all at once. My magic started eating me from the inside, and I almost died after a month. Luckily Bob sent me these Limiters, they ate away my excess power. Kinda ironic, don't you think? If I don't let the Limiters eat my magic, my magic will eat me. Anyways, that how it is." Everyone was silent for a few minutes. Lucy fidgeted uncomfortably under the intense stares from her family.

"Ah, well you can keep them then." was all Master Makarov said, and he went back to his office to sort out the papers *ahem* complaints.

"LUCY! THAT'S SOOOOOO COOL! CAN I TRY ONE, CAN I, CAN I?" Natsu shouted excitedly, pulling on her left earring. The one he was pulling was a skull shaped earring that had red eyes. It looked and creeped him out, but he wanted to see such an awesome object! The guild laughed at how childish he was, while Lisanna, Mira, and Levy sighed. They made gestures to him to come over. Juvia, understanding what they were trying to do, whispered to Gray to help her distract Lucy for a while.

_With Natsu… _

Natsu walked over, grinning widely, towards the three exasperated mages. "What's up, guys?" They looked at him for a moment, and sighed again. He gave a confused look, and Lisanna started to talk. "Natsu, you LOVE Lucy. You. Need. To. Confess." Seeing the direction of where this conversation was headed, a faint pink appeared on his face. "But… but Lucy doesn't evenlike me like _that_!" The three shook their heads in disbelief. "Honestly, MAN UP, Natsu! How do you know she doesn't like you? A real man won't just give up like that!" Mira cried in frustration. Levy giggled a bit. "Mira, you're starting to sound like Elfman. But seriously, Natsu. Make your move, before someone else does!"

"But I'm not a romantic guy and such. Lucy loves romance, nearly all her books are about love!"

"So what? You're like… her knight? You're always there to protect her!"

"Pftt… like she needs protecting now, she probably has triple the amount of magical energy Master Makarov has!"

"You can be sweet sometimes… you uprooted a rainbow sakura tree for her!"

"Wah? How did you know about that?"

"Besides, Lucy would love you for who you are! She doesn't need romance!"

"… why are you guys so keen on getting me and Lucy together?"

"Cuz' you guys are such a CUTE COUPLE!"

"…"

"Do you want to lose to _Gray_, Natsu? Cuz he's already ahead of you."

"That guys got it easy! He _knew_ Juvia liked him! She friggin' STALKS him!"

"That's not the point. Don't you want to confess, Natsu?"

"… fine."

"YAY!"

Natsu sighed as he watched the trio cheer and clap. His face was now beet red, and he tried to cover it by lifting his scarf up slightly. He glanced over to where Lucy was standing. If he confessed, and she didn't like him back, then they won't be partners anymore. She'd probably avoid him, go to another team, and he didn't want that. He forced his attention back to the still celebrating girls.

"How am I going to do it?"

They paused for a second. "Hmm… good question…"

_With Lucy… _

Lucy watched Natsu head over to Mira, Levy and Lisanna. "Juvia is glad that her love rival has found her man." she looked over to see Juvia smiling gently at her. Gray was standing beside the blushing water mage, arm draped around her waist. Lucy gave them a curious look. "What do you mean?" Gray smirked slightly, "I don't know what you see in that flame-brain, but congrats." They watched Lucy's amusing reaction. First, it was shock, and then anger (Gray edged away slightly, not wanting to experience another Lucy Kick), and finally, the girl turned into a rather interesting shade of red. "What? W-w-what do you m-mean? I d-don't like N-n-natsu!"

The two mages' grin only widened as they watched the girl stutter and try to deny her obvious feelings. "Like I said, Lucy. You can't lie very well." Next minute, Gray was flat on the ground, with a boot(Lucy's) on his head. Juvia shrieked in horror and tried to save her Gray-sama's beautiful face. The embarrassed girl then turned around, and raced out of the guild, still as red as a tomato.

_And then… _

Master Makarov stood on the second floor of the guild, Mavis next to him, watching the celestial mage run out of the guild. "What do you think we should do? I've never heard of having two Magical Limiters at the same time." Makarov said seriously, his eyes not looking away from where the girl was a few minutes ago. Mavis appeared as if she was in deep thought. "Perhaps… we should enter her in the Grand Magic Games? We can test her potential, and see more of her magical energy. It's in two weeks after all." The Master nodded in agreement. "Yes, we'll do that."


	10. Grand Magic Tournament, Begins!

**Hello everyone! I was busy again, and didn't update yesterday, sorry! But fear not, I am back! Not really. But yeah, anyways, hope you enjoy! TY EVERYONE FOR REVIEWING! I NEVER REALLY CELEBRATED THE FIFTY MARK SO I'LL DO IT NOW. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! YEAH! I'm going to reply to some people. Don't feel sad if it's not u, I'm not being biased, they just asked some questions and suggested some things so yeah… **

**FuzzyPeach12****: Yeah, I might make her take off the limiters sometime in the Magic Games! Lucy Ashley from Fairy Tail suggested I do a pair fight and make Wendy sit out while Lucy kicked ass, so I might take her limiters off then! Good suggestion, ty XDD!**

**angelg0722****: The magic orb is basically a blob of her raw celestial magic power, and it's a bit like dragon slayer magic, etc. You know how Natsu's hands are covered in fire? Just imagine that, just a bit rounder, and it's a light yellow. Yeah. I'm still working on the magic thing, cuz I just thought the idea was cool… it was kinda on a whim… I might make Lucy be able to predict the enemies' movements when she takes those limiters off :P If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!**

**Lucy Ashley from Fairy Tail****: Yeah, I think I'm gonna do a pair fight, Lucy and Wendy vs. ? Also, I liked the idea of Wendy sitting out, but maybe because she's injured? Cuz Lucy's personality right now is between old Lucy and edo-Lucy. Yeah thanks for the suggestion! XDD**

**Disclaimer: FairyTail is not mine, it's Hiro Mashima's! Though it would be cool if it was mine… but that's just a fan's wish, after all! :P**

Master Makarov was standing on the second floor when he decided to announce it. "ALRIGHT, EVERYONE! I'M GOING TO ANNOUNCE WHO IS GOING TO BE PARTICIPATING IN THE GRAND MAGIC GAMES! There will be two teams! Fairy Tail Team A will be: Natsu, Erza, Gray, Wendy and Lucy! Fairy Tail Team B will be: Laxus, Juvia, Cana, Mirajane, and Gajeel! These ten people please start getting ready." With that, he returned to his office, along with Mavis.

Natsu was like usual, 'revved up', while Gray was trying to calm a crying Juvia who was flooding the room ("Why am I not in Gray-sama's team?). Carla was talking to Wendy, telling her to be careful, while Laxus, Cana, Mirajane and Gajeel remained unaffected. Lucy stopped eating her pasta and looked up in surprise. "Me?" she said, pointing to herself. Erza sat down next to her. "Indeed, Lucy. I approve of Master's decision, actually. Your sword skills seemed to have improved greatly, I would like to test it out myself." Lucy sweatdropped and shook her head vigorously, no way she was going against _Erza_ when dealing with _swords_.

_And then… _

There was one more day before they had to leave for the Magic Games, and everyone was extremely excited. Except a certain fire dragon slayer who was at his home (Happy was with Carla), groaning in frustration. He had a pen in his hand, and was messily scribbling what seemed like words on a piece of paper. _Wait._ Natsu. Writing. Natsu and Writing. Natsu + Writing = THE WORLD IS ENDING RIGHT NOW. So why was such an uncanny thing occurring if the world wasn't ending? That's right. This boy was _in love_, and was writing a _love letter_. Something even more impossible, but he was determined to finish by the time the Grand Magic Games ended, and he was pretty sure writing when they were there was NOT a good idea. So the last chance he had was this, and currently, everything seemed to be defying him. He sighed in frustration, and held up his letter to read over it.

_Deer Lushee, _

_Hi… yeah… ummm… I'm gessing yur pritty shocked rite now. I meen I dont right usally. Well I am righting write now to tell yu that yu are a wierdo. Yu make me feal all theeze wierd thingz all the time. I ferst noticd wen yu lefted two train too yeerz ago At ferst I feeled happy that yu wer going two make yurself stronga and stronga and stronga but I feeled sad wen I thinked that yu didnt nead my protecshion. I dont no why but I feal happy wen I protect yu, it makes me feal warm and fuzsy inside. _

_Also I was pritty sad and missd yu a lot and I culdnt stopped thinking about yu. I was very sad when I thinked that I still had two wait anotha yeer befour I culd see yu again. But I also fealed very warm like I was being heeted up wen I thinked about yur smile. Yu have the prittiest and beutifullest smile in the hole widest world. _

_That's why I dont like two see yu cry, Lushee. Yu are very pritty and cute wen yu are happy and smiling, but wen yu cry I feal like Im going two die! I think that is absurrd, but my frendz say it is normel. I also get theeze strange flutering fealings in my tummy sometimez, and I feal my face heet up wen I think about yu. At ferst I thinked that I got a diseese from yu, since yur such a wierdo!_

_I was confuzed wen I got theeze fealings, it was very knew two me. I askd my frendz, and they told me I was in luv! They told me I felled in luv, but I _

He smiled, he was almost finished with it! He just needed to say he was in love with her, and then end it off! He exhaled, and leaned back on his chair, looking up at the ceiling. He recalled all the times he was with Lucy, good or bad.

_Natsu, geez! Did you have to destroy it all!_

_GAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM, NATSUUUUUUU!_

_Wow! Are you serious? This is for me? That's so sweet, thankyou, Natsu!_

_Don't over exert yourself, baka Natsu!_

He shook his head to clear off his thoughts. Jeez, he really did love that weirdo.

_And then… _

It was the same weird pumpkin guy who was the announcer for the Games this year as well. All the teams got ready for the preliminaries as he started speaking. "Welcome to the Grand Magic Games! We have many formidable opponents this year! And here is Sabertooth and Fairy Tail, the two strongest guilds in Fiore right now! Since Fairy Tail's core members have returned two years ago, they have been on fire! They won on their first year, and tied with Sabertooth last year! The rivalry between the two are amazing! Who will claim the championships this year?"

As if on cue, the two guilds glared at each other, the tension was high.

"And now, for the preliminaries, we introduce to you, the Stepping Stones! Who will survive in this horrible nightmare? In a moment, all of you will be lifted into the air, and stone tiles will appear underneath you, like a grid. Each stone tile will be about a metre long, and wide, and they are two metres apart. They are there so you can stand on them, there are about a thousand stones all together, since there are so many groups this year. Beware, they aren't just normal stones! These stones have lacrima installed in them! Some will explode when you touch them, some will burn you, some will electrocute you, some just disappear, and a lot more other surprises. The objective of this game is to stay on as long as you can. You will lose if you fall off the stone, out of the arena, etc. A team is only out when all their teammates fall off! In other words, once there are only eight different teams remaining on the stones (Is that confusing? Like, it doesn't matter if all your teammates are out, as long as there is one person, they basically represent the whole team… ), you win!"

Lucy and co. nodded slowly, digesting the information (except for Natsu who ignored the whole explanation). They readied themselves as they got lifted up from the ground. Hundreds of contestants were now standing on stone tiles.

"Alright! Are you all ready? Then, let the preliminary match, BEGIN!"


	11. Lucy and the Macho Men

**Hey guys! I hope you like this chapter, please read till the end! It's cuz Lucy might seem like a meanie for a bit, but then it's all a misunderstanding :P I actually liked writing this chapter quite a lot, it's quite funny XDD Well, enjoy, my readers!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, it's Hiro Mashima's! You know, I'm starting to run out of things to say here, cuz just saying 'I don't own Fairy Tail, it's Hiro Mashima's' seems really short… **

As soon as Lucy heard the pumpkin-person announce the start of the match, chaos erupted. People's stones exploded, zapped, disappeared, and a whole lot of colours were painting the arena. People were falling down everywhere like rain, about a hundred was knocked off on their first tile. Lucy was suddenly wary of her own tile, and felt some shaking before… _pop!_ A flower popped out in the middle of her tile. "WAH?" she looked at it in pure shock, _what in the f*cking hell is this?_

As if on cue, the announcer spoke again. "Just saying, I said surprises, but not necessarily _bad_ ones, you can be lucky enough to land on some good tiles as well!" A vein popped on Lucy's head. "Oh, and if you stay on your tile too long…" Lucy's tile started disappearing… "Your tile disappears… just saying."

Lucy managed to jump away from her tile on to another one before it completely vanished, to feel her new tile starting to heat up. She jumped out of the way as fire exploded out of it. She proceeded to run from spikes, poison, electric shocks, and other ominous things. _For this, my spirits won't help much… I'll use my swords then, they're good for assassination, and agility. This way, I can knock down as many opponents I can as well. _

Lucy's belt glowed, and in her hands, her two long swords appeared ( I don't think I told you, they are long but thin and elegant swords, one is black, even the blade, and the other is white XDD). She swiftly jumped from tile to tile, knocking down all the contestants that were in her way with the hilt of her swords. They didn't even know how to react, and before they knew it, they were falling through the sky. "OMG! What is this? There is someone moving at an extremely fast pace, and everyone who's in her way is getting knocked out! Who is this person? It's… I DON'T BELIEVE THIS! IT'S LUCY HEARTFILLIA!" the pumpkin-announcer bounced up and down excitedly.

_And then… _

There were about fifty people left, Lucy had concluded, as she ran across the board dodging whatever the tiles threw at her. Using her brains, she had figured most of the tiles' magic and patterns, and right now, she was standing on a 'safe' one. Natsu and Gray had fallen off because they got into one of their STUPID fights, and didn't even realise they were falling down. Erza was okay until a few seconds ago, where she had landed on a tile with 'slip' magic, which made her tile very slippery. Her armour didn't help at all, and soon she was falling. Lucy could have sworn she heard a 'kyaa!' from the mage, but dared not to mention it. The only ones left for Fairy Tail Team A right now were her and Wendy.

Lucy was certain the younger girl could take care of herself, so they went separate ways so they didn't attract attention. She continued to KO mages everywhere, she knew it was dangerous, but for Fairy Tail to have the highest possibility of winning, she decided to sacrifice herself to bring as many mages down as possible (hopefully all of them). This way, the game would end sooner, which would create a higher possibility for Fairy Tail to win. But that didn't mean she was just going to go and fall off without a fight. She was planning to bring everyone down AND stay standing, so Wendy wouldn't be pressured too much.

Soon, there were only eight different teams left. Sabertooth, Fairy Tail Team A, Fairy Tail Team B, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel, Quatro Cerberus, and Angel Snow. The teams that participated two years ago had not changed much, maybe they got stronger, got more magic. Lucy could handle that. She looked at Angel Snow. That team had consisted of four men and one little girl about nine. They were the unknown team, she had to be careful around them. She could handle that. What she couldn't handle, was the fact that the four men were MACHO MEN IN WHITE DRESSES WITH HEAVY MAKE UP ON. Her shock turned into disgust (no offense to anyone who's a macho man and likes cross-dressing). She could NOT handle THAT. How could ANYONE let a CHILD be in the presence of THEM?!

Natsu looked up to where Lucy, Wendy, and the other teams were standing, and offered a look of sympathy. He saw Lucy grimace as she sized up her opponents, he could tell Lucy was disgusted to the point she had to look away (again, really, no offense). He never knew Lucy was so against cross-dressing and men putting make up on. But he had to agree as well.

Team Angel Snow's four guys saw as everyone looked away from them. "Do we really disgust you so much?" macho man 1 stated angrily. "What's wrong with openly showing what we like?" macho man 2 backed his teammate up. Sting made a sick face. Lucy turned back to glare at the group of men. "It's always like this, we are hated by everyone except for little Maria!" macho man 3 piped up. "That's right, she's the only one who accepts us! Even our guild shuns us away, she's our angel!"

Nobody really wanted to say anything; they were right in a way. Even though they did feel the guilt, their disgust overpowered them. Lucy was the first to speak up. "That's right… it disgusts me… how can you even call yourselves humans? Letting such a young child witness the horrible real world so soon…" Everyone gasped. Even though they agreed to a point, that was just going too far! Natsu was shocked. _Lucy… did you really change so much? You used to be so kind and forgiving, even to your enemies! What am I going to do? I love the old Lucy… _

There was a pause as the macho men started fuming. They were heartbroken; it hurt to be told so bluntly. "… that's right, THAT HORRIBLE MAKE UP! AND WHAT IS UP WITH YOU ALL WEARING THE SAME DRESS? THAT'S SOOOOO TACKY! JEEZ, YOU THERE - YOU'RE MORE SUITED FOR A BLUE, LONG, FLOWING DRESS! AND YOU, THAT HAIR OF YOURS WOULD MATCH A CUTE YELLOW AND WHITE SHORT DRESS! Jeez, you'll ruin that poor girl's sense of fashion before she hits her teens!" Lucy ranted, folding her arms and giving a glare to the surprised men. EVERYONE, including the pumpkin-announcer, fell, anime-style.

"You… you don't… hate us?" the macho men shyly asked, recovering from their shock. Lucy scoffed, and replied with a smirk, "Who cares? I've seen flying, talking, bearded cats wearing glasses, and loud mouthed teens that can be so tomboyish they can be mistaken for guys. I don't see what's wrong with Macho men who are into cross-dressing. Heck, it even seems normal." The macho men started crying, anime-style. "ANEKI! PLEASE BECOME OUR MASTER! TEACH US THE WAYS OF CROSS-DRESSING!" Lucy sweatdropped.

Natsu gave a huge, toothy grin as he watched the small interaction between Lucy and Angel Snow. _Same old Luce! May be a bit more violent, but she's still caring! Boy, am I glad!_

Lucy watched as the little blonde-haired girl smirked slightly, holding her teddy bear in her arms. "What an interesting person… Lucy Heartfillia…" she didn't take her eyes off Lucy, the little smile never leaving her lips. Lucy's eyes narrowed in suspicion as the girl muttered something really quietly. The macho men's reactions did not comfort her either. They were whispering things like, 'No!' and 'Please, Maria, our angel! Aneki's a good person!' The girl's smile only grew wider, and hugged her teddy bear closer. "Relax, I'm just testing her." She started whispering again, and before Lucy could react, she felt a searing, unbearable pain hit her.


	12. GateKeeper

**Hello, guys! Here's chapter 12! This is where the story actually starts getting a plot, I can't believe my intro was so long! Anyways, I'm kinda in a hurry, so ENJOY! AND REVIEW! AND TY FOR YOUR REVIEWS!**

**I don't own Fairy Tail or it's characters, I could never think up of such an awesome series! Only Hiro Mashima can! **

Lucy slammed her black sword into the stone tile and leaned on it for support as the pain flowed through her body. There was an annoying sound in the distance… screaming? She then realised it was her who was screaming. She shut her mouth up quickly, teeth biting her bottom lip to stop herself from more screaming. Her hands clenched around the hilt of her sword as she slowly dropped onto both her knees. She could barely notice anything other than the pain right now. She could see nothing but white, feel nothing but the pain, and she could only just make out some sounds. People were frantically crying out, the pumpkin-announcer was demanding for someone to stop… and Natsu. He was continuously shouting out her name. She wanted to tell him, it was okay, and she was fine, but that was not possible. She was only just holding on to consciousness, and to answer him in this state right now would have been a miracle.

Natsu immediately used his fire to boost himself up to where the frail-looking Lucy was. He frantically held on to her cold body. Her breathing was jagged, heartbeat uneven, eyes wide and unseeing. He had no idea what was happening, or what to do. He carefully wrapped his warm arms around her, supporting and warming her at the same time. "YOU! WHAT DID YOU DO TO LUCY?" he yelled, shooting a glare to Maria, who was still smiling in that creepy way. He shielded Lucy away from the petite girl's view, in a desperate attempt to protect her.

The pumpkin-announcer (I still haven't given the poor guy a name… let's just call him Pumpkin ^^) ran towards the commotion. "Stop this at once, Angel Snow! The preliminaries have ended, and if you don't stop at once, you shall be disqualified!" he yelled. Maria gave a smirk. She whispered something yet again, and suddenly, it felt as if all the pain had left Lucy. She felt numb, but slowly, her sight was returned to her. "Lucy Heartfillia… impressive… it's been a while since someone was able to take my magic and still be conscious… in fact, most have died. I can see why you are the Gate Keeper now. Well, see you tomorrow." with that, Maria turned around and swiftly jumped off the tile, followed by the four macho men. One stayed behind to utter one last thing, "Aneki, we're truly sorry. I hope you forgive our angel Maria for that." He bowed to the hardly conscious blonde who was cradled in Natsu's arms, and left as well.

_And then… _

Lucy opened her eyes, to see a certain pink haired boy's sleeping face. She blinked. And blinked again. "GAHHHHHHHHHHHH! NATSU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!?" She punched the awakening dragon slayer right between his eyes, and proceeded to back away until she hit a wall. The surprised boy had been flung across the room and into a wall, creating several cracks in it. She looked around, to realise, it was in fact, NOT her room. "Huh? Where… am I?"

Natsu got up slowly, rubbing his sore head which now had a giant bump. "Geez, Luce! You're in the hotel! It's the Grand Magical Tournament, remember? And there were these macho men, and this creepy girl who said some strange things. And you were screaming, and quivering, and all that! Well, since you have the energy to punch me, you're probably fine. I'm glad!" Her face flushed in embarrassment as she realised her mistake. "W-whatever! Anyway, what happened back there?" The cheerful boy immediately tensed up. "You… you looked like you were in… so much… pain, Luce. That weird girl whispered something, and suddenly, you were screaming… it was like… you seemed like… you were dying… or something… I hated it, seeing you like that… and I couldn't do anything, either! I could only watch… as you…" Lucy was surprised. She had never seen Natsu so upset, or emotional. He was usually all cheerful and happy-go-lucky, it was quite strange to see him like this right now.

"It's fine, Natsu! Look, I'm alive and kicking, aren't I? So, what happened after that? I was barely conscious, I don't remember much…" Natsu gave a small smile, "I carried you back." Lucy blushed slightly at this. "T-thankyou? But that doesn't explain why you were sleeping in the bed too?" With this, Natsu completely recovered, and gave a sly smirk to Lucy. She did not like that look. "Ohhhhhhhh… you don't remember? I was gonna leave, but then you grabbed my wrist and started crying, 'don't go', so I had no choice, but to stay. It was quite cute of you, really. Lately, you've been quite violent and rude, I was wondering if you still had remnants of when you were innocent." Lucy's faint blush darkened considerably, and she was now a very bright red. _So cute…_ Natsu thought to himself, and ruffled her hair slightly. "Well, it's the afternoon right now, so why don't we go and hang out for now?" Natsu asked. His fingers were crossed, this _was_ technically asking for a date.

Lucy considered this for a while. Did Natsu just ask her on a _date_? Naw… probably not… maybe Erza, and Gray were coming along as well… "Natsu, where are the others? Are they coming along as well?" he gave his usual toothy grin, and replied, "Nup! They're… _busy_… so just you and me!" If possible, Lucy's face got even redder. "Heeeeeyyyyy Luce? Why is your face so red? Are you still sick?" Natsu teased, knowing perfectly well it wasn't because she was sick. "S-s-sure… I'll come…"

"YOSH! I'M ALL FIRED UP!" _Erza was nice enough to give me this chance to take her on a date… I have to make it as awesome as possible!_

Lucy laughed at her best friend's childishness. "It's not a fight, silly!" Even though Lucy was considerably happy, she still couldn't shake off the ominous aura she felt from Maria, or the strange things she said. _That girl… she seems like she knows me… and why did she call me Gate Keeper? What's that?_


	13. The Date

**Konnichiwa, minna-san! I hope you like this chapter, I'm sorry if it's unoriginal cuz I just thought that, Natsu's bottomless stomach + Lucy with attitude + restaurant = food fight XDD Enjoy reading! And OMG I'M ON 99 REVIEWS GUYS TYSM FOR REVIEWING! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS, ONE MORE TILL 100 XDD So, PLZ REVIEW! THANKYOU**

**I don't own Fairy Tail or any of its characters, Hiro Mashima does.**

Three very dodgy figures stalked a blonde haired girl and her companion. "WAH! I was forgotten, even by the author!" a flying blue figure sobbed.

"Hmph. Me as well, he-cat."

"Happy, Carla, who on earth are you two talking to? And be quite, they'll hear you!" one figure demanded angrily.

"E-erza… I think you're louder than him…"

"HMMM?! DID I HEAR YOU SAY SOMETHING, GRAY?"

"N-not at a-all, Erza, sir Erza!"

"Aye! They have just turned the corner!"

"Quick, everyone. Follow them!"

"Wendy, you sure this perfume has covered our smells?"

"Yes… but… Erza-san, Gray-san, Happy-san, I… I d-don't think this is a g-g-good idea!"

"Exactly, Wendy. You might have your innocence ruined. Let's go back."

"NOO! Carla, stay with me!"

"Go away, he-cat!"

"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU."

"Haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

Natsu strolled around the city with Lucy. It was fun and refreshing, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was following them. E shrugged, "Whatever. I'm strong enough to protect Lucy if they attacked anyways!" Lucy shot a look at me. "Who were you talking to?" Natsu gave his usual goofy grin, and replied, "No one!"

"Weirdo."

"You're the weirdo."

"Hey!"

"I'm hungry."

"Were you even listening?"

"Nup!"

"…"

"Let's go get some food!"

"…"

"Helloooooo? Luuuuuucyyyyyyyy…" Natsu whined, pouting slightly. _Omg, he looks so cute! Wait, no, Lucy! He's nakama, N-A-K-A-M-A. That's it._

"… Fine… where do you wanna eat?"

"YAY! Let's go over there!" Natsu took Lucy's hand in his, and dragged her off to some random restaurant. She felt her face heat up slightly at the touch, and looked down at her feet. She did not notice that Natsu had his own faint pink on his cheeks.

_And then… _

Lucy was just about to bite into her sandwich, when she felt a chicken bone hit her head. An angry vein popped in her head. She ignored it, and focused back on her sandwich. Slurping noises could be heard as the person next to her completely pigged out. When another empty glass of water flew at her, she managed to dodge this time, but twitched in anger. _Just ignore it, act civilised in a restaura - _Natsu accidentally set fire to her sandwich, and she hadn't even bitten into it yet! A million little veins popped in her head. "Huh? Lucy? You aren't eating?" the oblivious dragon slayer asked as he munched on a fish as well as a burger, while gulping down some water at the same time. Lucy's expression was hidden behind her bangs. She emitted a malicious aura… which spelled _dangerous_.

Poor, poor Natsu. Lucy grabbed the mayonnaise, and called out in a sweet voice, "Na-tsu~! Look over heeeere!" the confused boy looked up, to see the white sauce coming straight for his face, and… SPLAT. Lucy burst out in laughter as a shocked Natsu stayed frozen in his seat, with mayonnaise all over him. "Lucy!? What was that for?!" Lucy, still clutching her stomach in laughter, could not reply.

SPLASH! Lucy stopped laughing as she felt the water hit her. She glared at the amused boy as he held the empty glass in his hand. "Oh, THAT'S IT." She grabbed a cherry pie, and slapped it on his face, while he took the chance when she was off guard, to drop his half eaten fish on her dress.

"NATSU! THAT WAS AN EXPENSIVE DRESS!" _Crash!_

"LUCY, YOU RUINED MY PRETTY FACE!" _Boom!_

"HUH? PRETTY? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!" _Splash!_

Soon, they were panting heavily, food all over them, glaring daggers at each other. "D-damn… you…" they both said at the same time. They looked at each other suspiciously some more, until Natsu cautiously stuck his hand out. "Truce…" Lucy hesitated, and then took it, seeing no harm in stopping their chaotic food fight. _Splat!_ Lucy looked in shock as Natsu yet again threw a cake at her. He smiled cheekily and stuck his tongue out childishly. "Like hell I'm gonna lose!" And it started all over again.

The extremely pissed off chef had managed to stop the two and scolded them for wasting food. They looked down at their shoes in shame, until the chef smiled a bit. "Well, it's okay if you understand. But jeez, such youthfulness! What a cute couple!" The two embarrassed mages' eyes widened, both were heating up. "W-W-WE'RE NOT A C-C-COUPLE!" Lucy yelled. The chef just gave them a dodgy smile. "Of course you aren't. Now go along, before I make you two love-birds clean up this mess." Lucy quickly nodded her head, and dragged Natsu out of the restaurant.

Three - errr five - suspicious figures got up from their table at the restaurant and walked towards the chef. "I apologise sincerely for our friends' actions, they are still immature. As repayment, I will help you clean this mess." the woman with the scarlet hair said. The chef looked up, and smiled warmly. "Oh, thank you. So, you're that couple's friends?" Wendy spoke up this time. "Yup! Aren't they cute together?" The chef laughed heartily. "Yes they are! Though they're both quite dense, aren't they?" When he said that, Erza put a hand on his shoulder, closing her eyes, and nodding her head. "I see you have a great eyesight. I completely agree with you." And they immersed into a heated conversation about Lucy and Natsu. Gray sweatdropped. "Guys… weren't we meant to be following them?" No one answered.

After changing out of their ruined clothes, and fixing up their hair (with the help of Virgo and Cancer), the two mages started walking again. Natsu was abnormally quite since they had left the restaurant. Lucy was beginning to worry about her pink-haired companion. "Natsu… are you okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine…"

Natsu sighed heavily as he stole a glance towards the beautiful blonde. _Lucy… rejected the idea of us being together immediately… she didn't even stop to consider it! It would be so awkward if I gave her that love letter… maybe I should just throw it away._ "-tsu… NATSU!" He snapped out of his thoughts to see a pair of big brown eyes staring right at him. "GAH! Lucy, don't surprise me like that!" She frowned and stopped walking, looking at him worriedly. "Natsu, are you still angry about the food fight? If that's so, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done all that." He looked at her in surprise. _She's worried about me! GAH! What am I doing? This was supposed to be a good date! I have to apologise as well!_ He gave a big toothy grin, "Nah! Don't worry about it! I ruined your dress too, didn't I? Sorry bout that. Now let's forget about all that and continue with our date - err… f-f… food h-hunt!" He stuttered. Lucy smiled brightly, glad that Natsu was back to normal. Neither of them realised that their hands were still entwined.


	14. Day 1 Part 1

**Konnichiwa, minna! I'm REALLY SORRY that I haven't updated for a while, I was really busy! Really! So SORRY! And, this chapter may seem a bit uneventful, but I promise the next one will be so much awesummer! Anyways, TYSM for reviewing, I passed 100! Honestly, I was NOT expecting it when I started, I was thinking even going up to 50 was a miracle! Anyways, enjoy this chapter, even though I found it slightly boring :P **

**Disclaimer: I don't want to rub it in, but yeah, I don't own Fairy Tail! Hiro Mashima does XDD! AND HE IS AN AWESOME MANGAKA!**

"WELCOME, TO THE GRAND MAGIC TOURNAMENT, DAY 1! As there was a little… _commotion _between the teams yesterday, we didn't get to announce the names of the people in the teams! (that's a lie, I actually forgot to mention it =.=) From Sabertooth: Sting, Rogue, Minerva, Orga, and Rufus! From Fairy Tail Team A: Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy and Lucy! From Fairy Tail Team B: Laxus, Juvia, Cana, Mirajane, and Gajeel! From Blue Pegasus: Ichiya, Hibiki, Eve, Ren, and Nichiya! From Lamia Scale: Jura, Lyon, Sherry, Chelia and Toby! From Mermaid Heel: Kagura, Arania, Beth, Risley,and Milliana! From Quatro Cerebus: Nobarly, Yaeger, War Cry, Rocker, and Bacchus! Last but not least, the mysterious guild that suddenly shot up in the ranks, Angel Snow! There is: Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Odette, and Maria!" (just saying, apart from Angel Snow, the rest of the people are actually from the canon! If you forgot about them, that's okay, cuz I did too ^^ until I researched a bit XDD)

Everyone sweatdropped at Angel Snow's odd names, Maria being an exception. But seriously, fairy tale names?

Pumpkin ignored everyone's looks and continued talking. "Today's program consists of the four battles, and the… FOREST HUNT! Us judges will be choosing who will participate in the battles, but you are free to choose whoever you want to go in the events! The battles, which will be in a moment, are quite simple. There is only one rule: keep fighting until one is unable to fight any longer, or they give up. The afternoon will be the forest hunt, a survival type game where there are traps and beasts lurking EVERYWHERE! The objective is to collect as much magical stones as you can, you can steal other players' stones as well! There are no rules, except no outside interference. That is all! The battles will now commence! TODAY'S FIRST BATTLE WILL BE: BLUE PEGASUS, NICHIYA VS. LAMIA SCALE, LYON! AFTER THAT, WE WILL HAVE: FT TEAM B, CANA VS. MERMAID HEEL: ARANIA! THEN, THERE WILL BE: SABERTOOTH, RUFUS VS. QUATRO CEREBUS, NOBARLY! FINALLY BEFORE NOON, WE WILL HAVE: ANGEL SNOW, ODETTE VS. FAIRY TAIL, ERZA!"

_And then… _

Lucy payed little attention to the battle between Nichiya and Lyon. It was rather pitiful, to have the inexperienced cat go against a skilled mage like Lyon. Of course, after two years, Nichiya had improved a lot more in his 'parfume magic' with the help of Ichiya, but it was still no where near the level of the ice-make mage. She sighed and sat back, thinking about the afternoon event's 'Forest Hunt'. It seemed like déjà vu, surviving in a forest with traps and dangerous creatures. _I am sooooo participating in this one. The 'Forest' is my specialty, after all._ She was brought back to the present with the loud announcement that Lyon had won the battle. That meant Cana was up next, so Lucy decided to move closer to Fairy Tail to cheer with them.

The fight was slightly better than the last one, the two mages were on pretty even ground for the first five minutes. That was, until Cana got caught in Arania's spider web-magic. The balance was tipped, and FT Team B was in a very bad position. Arania toyed with the poor card mage as she tried to wriggle free from the sticky web, but to no avail. Every one from Fairy Tail cheered ferociously, even the usually bored Laxus was staring at the match, clenching the railing tightly (no Laxus x Cana here =.=, just Laxus loves Fairy Tail XDD). But there seemed to be something wrong with Cana. She didn't seem as strong as usual?

Cana managed to get a trembling finger onto her cards. She pulled some random ones out, and shouted, "Tower, Lightning, and Shadow! STORM CAGE!" The sky around the arena darkened and Lucy could hear the rumbling of thunder. Then… CRACK!

The whole of Fairy Tail… no, everyone's jaws dropped. Cana… MISSED HER TARGET? Was this yet again interference from the outside? Cana had looked quite weakened before the fight as well… well, that's what they thought until Cana spoke up. "Damn, I guess I shouldn' ta had that drinkin contest with Bacchus earlier… ugh… huh? Where's my booze?" Everyone fell anime-style, that BAKA CANA! Fairy Tail groaned as they watched the drunk mage wobble around. (yeah, I'm sorry if you're all disappointed about Cana, even I am :/! But I wanted to make someone lose first)

The last two matches didn't even last five minutes. Rufus had 'memorised' Nobarly, and the match was already sealed at the beginning. It was the same for Erza vs. Odette. Odette had started prancing around in his beautiful, silky, blue dress which Lucy had recommended. He waved to his 'Aneki', and had not paid attention at all, which resulted in a crushing defeat. He didn't even show his magic yet, and Erza KO'D him out of anger.

_And then… _

It was noon, so FT Team A decided to grab some food to eat before the Forest Hunt started. Lucy was happily munching on a veggie roll, her teammates beside her. It wasn't long before Natsu and Gray had started a fight again, with a distressed Wendy trying to calm them down. Erza, Lucy, Happy, and Carla all ignored the three loud mages, and everyone else who was in the restaurant evacuated in a panic. That was, until they started using magic. And almost froze/burnt Lucy. The two idiots didn't notice what they had done, whilst Wendy rushed forward to help her friend.

"Oh, my! Lucy-san, are you okay? Here, I'll heal y-"

"No need, Wendy. I need to go _teach_ those two assh*les some _manners_."

Wendy sweatdropped as she watched the seriously pissed off blonde get up, cracking her knuckles, and made her way to the fighting mages. The two, as if sensing a dangerous presence, stopped fighting to see a demonic figure heading towards them. They gulped and backed away slightly, realising the severe mistake they had just made. "L-lucy… we can… er… we're n-not f-fighting!" Gray stuttered, reluctantly putting an arm around Natsu. Natsu mirrored him, and managed to quack out an, "Aye!" Lucy gave them a sparkly smile.

"Lesson 1… never. Waste. Your. FOOD!" she screamed the last word, and lunged at them. Before the two boys could react, the felt an impact on their stomachs and were thrown backwards by the force of Lucy's kick.

"Lesson 2… don't. Fight. At. A. RESTAURANT!" she roughly grabbed them both by the collars and flung them across the room.

"Lesson 3… let. People. Finish. Their. Frigging. LUNCH!" Wendy and Happy winced slightly as the out of control girl kicked them hard straight in the face. The ice and fire mage were both lying on their stomachs, and were about to get up, when… "Ouch!" They both gasped, as Lucy sat on Natsu, and slammed her feet (she had steel boots on) into Gray.

"Hmm… have you learnt your lessons now?" The beat up mages nodded vigorously, afraid of the demon-like girl towering over them. She glared at them for a couple more seconds, before giving a sharp nod. "Good to know. I hope you don't interrupt my meal, EVER AGAIN."

Lucy stood up and headed towards a random table, grabbing an untouched pie, before sitting back down next to Wendy. Erza, who was eating a strawberry cake throughout the whole incident, nodded at Lucy in approval. "I see you can discipline them properly now, Lucy. Good job, you can take over for me when I am busy." Everyone sweatdropped at that, even Lucy.

_And then…_

Everyone was assembled at the arena yet again for the afternoon event, Forest Hunt. The arena was already set up so it was a giant forest with various types of trees and bushes. Pumpkin cleared his throat, and spoke into the microphone. "And now, we have the afternoon event… Foooooorrrrreeeeest Huuuunt!" People clapped and cheered, anticipating the event that was about to start. "Before we start, let's review the rules and aims, shall we? The aim of Forest Hunt is to collect as much magical stones as you can, using whatever method you want. Be careful, since you're in a forest, beasts can be lurking ANYWHERE! And don't forget the deadly traps we set up around the forest! Well, we aren't responsible for your deaths… hehehe… ANYWAYS! TEAMS, PLEASE CHOOSE A MEMBER TO PARTICIPATE IN 'FOREST HUNT'! Send them out when you are done, and we shall START!"

Lucy watched as Gray and Natsu started arguing for who will participate. Lucy, who had her mind set on entering the event, slapped them both on top of their heads. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and when she opened them, the two mages shrieked in terror. Lucy had the scariest expression on and her glare penetrated the both of them. They shivered slightly as the furious girl towered over them. "_I'm _going in this event, so _bug off_. Or it won't be pretty." The two nodded their heads vigorously, the both of them hadn't forgotten the 'scary Lucy' incident a moment ago.

Lucy smirked as she watched Natsu and Gray cower in fear. _Heh. My win. _Stepping forward into the arena, she heard the loud cheers and yells of 'good luck!' from Fairy Tail. She crouched down, prepared to run as soon as Pumpkin announced the start.


	15. Day 1 Part 2

**Good evening (and good morning) ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and dogs! I welcome you all to chapter 15 of Open, the Gate of the Dragons! All the drama and tension, as well as NALU MOMENTS start from here, so get ready for my AWESOME story! Not that I didn't have any of that before, just things are gonna start getting serious (there's still humour, of course! :P) and maybe Natsu will probably confess sometime! I'm not hinting anything, not at all. *cough cough* Anyways, sorry for the delay, I have no excuse, and ENJOYY! XDD**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Fairy Tail. **

Pumpkin looked at the eight contestants for the Forest Hunt. "OKAY! ARE WE READY? THE PLAYERS FOR FOREST HUNT ARE: MINERVA, LAXUS, HIBIKI, SHERRY, MILLIANA, BACCHUS, SNOW WHITE, AND… LUCY! PLEASE START IN… THREE…" All eight contestants eyed each other suspiciously, and got into their fighting positions.

"… TWO!"

Lucy, being the strategic person she is, quickly formed a plan in her head. _I should get as much magical stones as I can without being seen by others… I guess it's assassin mode again, huh? Hmm… the beasts and traps should be fine… I need to lower my magic power as much as I can so I don't attract attention. _Lucy summoned her black sword, the shadow sword. This sword was the best for stealth, whilst the white one was flashy and attracted as much attention as possible. This was the sword's magic, the yin yang swords. The black represented the dark, silence, night, elegance etc. and the white one represented the light, sound, day, strength, etc. That was the reason why the black one would be best for now (even if the two swords are meant to stay together to keep the balance).

"… ONE!"

The blonde haired mage had a determined look on her face, and gripped her sword a bit tighter. _Stay focused… run as fast as you can… rely on your instincts… hide in trees… bushes… camouflage… _She ran through the many possibilities of hiding in a last ditch attempt to calm herself.

"AAAAAAND… GO!"

Loud cries and screams were heard as soon as Pumpkin yelled out the signal to start. Lucy leapt away from her spot just as lightning zapped where she was standing a moment ago. She whipped her head around to see Laxus smirking at her. He had shot a lightning bolt to every single contestant, and most managed to dodge. Ignoring the others, she bolted as quick as she could into the dense forestland. After five minutes of running, Lucy stopped and checked her surroundings. She felt no one near her, so thought quickly. "Hmm… the Pumpkin-guy said there were strange beasts… so maybe I should cover my smell, just in case." She scooped some random cherries nearby as well as mud, and covered her scent with them. When she was satisfied with it, she decided to climb up the trees.

Lucy didn't even reach the top of the tree when she heard a whooshing sound. Sensing something coming from her right, she swung herself up to a branch, narrowly missing a few knifes that whizzed past her. "Huh. The announcer was for real, when he mentioned death. Whatever. Hmmm… I should get a disguise first… and then scan the area…" she muttered out loud to herself. She climbed a bit higher into the trees, and grabbed bunches of leaves to cover herself. After struggling with her disguise for a while, she finally smiled in approval. It wasn't the best, but it was easier to move around in.

Elevating her magical power slightly, Lucy chanted a spell softly. It was an uncommon tracking-spell not many mages knew of. However, the Spirit King had given Lucy the book of spells that may have been useful to her in the future, and she managed to learn quite a few. This one was a useful one for tracking, as it basically lets the user mentally leave their bodies, and heightens one's senses. This Lucy could find the magic stones, as well as the other contestants, in one go.

_Survey my movements,_

_From the deep roots of the Earth._

_Channel thy energy,_

_Into my blood, my soul. _

_Oh, Mother Nature,_

_Let me see what you see,_

_Let me look from a Hawk's eye,_

_Or to gaze from a possum's view._

_Give me thy ability,_

_To see the truth and lies,_

_Every secret they hide, _

_Hide they shan't, from me._

_Oh, Mother Nature, _

_Give me thy power,_

_Grant me my wish,_

_To find what I seek. _

(I'm sorry if it's crappy, but I made it up, so…)

Lucy took a deep breath as she finished her spell, and felt her soul (well, not really, but she is mentally leaving her body, so yeah) getting lifted from her body, which had fallen onto one of the thicker branches of the tree, lying there unmoving. She sensed about two magic stones around, and… Bacchus nearby. He had no stones so far, so she wanted to avoid him as much as possible. She scanned the area, to find the other contestants, and a dim feel of magic stones.

_Meanwhile…_

Pumpkin was standing on a magic stone in mid-air, with giant lacrima screens showing what was going on inside the forest. One of the screens landed on Lucy as she chanted a foreign spell, then falling unconscious. "What is this over here? Lucy Heartfillia of Fairytail is not moving! It seems that nothing attacked her, and she didn't fall into a trap either, so what is happening?"

Happy stopped staring at the screen as he felt the air heat up near him. He turned around to see a very much enraged Salamander glaring at the lacrima screen. "Natsu… are you okay?" The furious mage did not reply, his mind was only on one thing – Lucy. He prayed to the stars (not really, because then he would be praying to Lucy's keys) that nothing had happened to his girl. No one, NO ONE was to touch a single hair on his mate.

A little blonde haired girl was hugging her teddy bear tightly as she watched the Gatekeeper on the lacrima screen. She smirked slightly as she felt a new presence that was not one of her four cross dressing bodyguards next to her. "The plan is going smoothly, Yvette. Lucky the Gatekeeper entered the Magic Tournament. Her powers will definitely awaken by the fifth day, I will make sure of that."

"Maria… you have to make sure this works. You know how Master hates failures."

"Of course. Team Angel Snow will make sure the Gatekeeper is captured. You proceed with your sealing."

"Okay. I came to check on you since all you've got is a bunch of losers by your side, but seems you're coping well."  
"Heh. That's to be expected from one of Master's handpicked members."

"Yeah, I guess. Well, see you around."

And with that, the shadowed silhouette glided away silently, leaving the blonde haired girl to yet again watch a certain celestial mage on the screen.

Having remembered the places where the magic stones were, Lucy muttered, "Release.", thus returning to her body. She got up almost immediately, she needed to leave before Bacchus came wandering here, or someone else found the magic stones. She got up, balancing herself on a branch of the tree, and leapt agilely to another tree's branch. She continued to jump from tree to tree (like a ninja! ;P), since her camouflage allowed her move around more without being seen. Finally she reached the area where she sensed the magic stone. She hopped off the tree, and walked towards a clearing, she felt the presence there.

Lucy looked around for a while before realising that someone was heading towards her, and at an incredibly fast pace. _Damn, was I seen? It's probably Bacchus. Wait… he's probably looking for the stone… _She had no time to think, so jumped into a nearby bush, and poked her head out slightly, ready for Bacchus. What surprised her was that it was indeed not the drunkard that entered the clearing, but Sabertooth's Minerva, who was holding a very battered Sherry.


	16. Day 1 Part 3

**Hey guys! I'm so so so sorry for not updating for the last two and a half weeks! And I left you guys at a cliff hanger too! Well, here's the last part of day 1, hope you like it! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, it belongs solely to Hiro Mashima. :P Nuff talk, let's start!**

Lucy almost growled in anger at the way Minerva dragged Sherry around. She suppressed her anger, reminding herself she was supposed to be hidden. But thinking about the amount of stones Minerva had… it was quite tempting to just go out and get them all. Lucy put a tiny bit of magic into her eyes - not enough that anyone would feel it - to count the number of stones the emotionless girl already had, out of curiosity. And she almost gasped in shock. _1, 2, 3… 8, 9, 10… 11?! It hasn't even been an hour into the event yet! _

Minerva smirked and dumped Sherry on the ground. "Hmph. You only had two stones. How boring. You know, when you were spluttering all that nakama crap, you almost reminded me of that Heartfillia girl from two years ago. She seriously pissed me off. Come to think of it, she's in this event too, isn't she? Maybe I'll go after her next… that tortured look she gave me was quite satisfying…" Lucy clenched her fists. _Don't lose it… don't lose it… ignore her… ignore that b*tch...I'll patch up Sherry when she leaves… _

Natsu was watching on the giant lacrima screen with Fairy Tail, and had heard every word Minerva said. He tensed up as anger pulsed through him, the air nearby increasing about ten-fold. No one complained, they too were furious at the arrogant Sabertooth's words. But as fired up as they were, they sincerely hoped their beloved blonde hair mage did not respond to Minerva. After all, the image of her battered and bruised body from going against Minerva two years ago was not easy to rid.

Lucy winced as Minerva kicked Sherry's body away from her. "Now, shall I go hunt some fairies? I still can't believe that pathetic guild would still let such a weakling participate in the Games. Or maybe, they are just so weak the best thing they have IS that miserable thing." Minerva laughed to herself. And she would have kept laughing if not for a giant rock flying at her. She dodged out of the way just in time, a bit of the jagged rock scraping her left cheek. Turning around to see who on earth dared to throw a ROCK at HER, she came face to face with none other than the girl she was insulting a few seconds ago. Lucy Heartfillia.

Everyone in Fairy Tail groaned as they watched Lucy spring into action. This was so unlike Lucy, responding to insults with violence. Perhaps a certain hot-headed fire mage was rubbing off on her. That wasn't good. Next thing they know, she'll be destroying cities and picking fights with Erza. Everyone shivered at the thought; they did NOT need Erza No 2.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Minerva screamed angrily at Lucy. The mentioned blonde didn't reply, but instead pointed her middle finger towards the enraged girl. Minerva was too shocked to react, so she stood there, mouth hanging open. Lucy took a deep breath to calm herself, and glanced at her opponent. "Please close your mouth, I don't want you drooling."

"… WHAT? HOW DARE YOU, YOU MERE LITTLE FAIRY! YOU DARE THROW A ROCK AT MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!"

"Oh, my bad. My hand slipped."

"AS IF! YOU DID IT ON PURPOSE! YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST STAYED QUIET, MAYBE I WOULD HAVE SPARED YOU! BUT NOW I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!"

"Well, that is if you can. What d'you reckon? Is a tiger stronger, or a fairy?"

"SHUT UP!"

"As you wish your highness." Lucy did a mock bow, her smug smirk never leaving her face. Enraged and blinded by anger, Minerva charged at the seemingly unarmed girl, temporarily forgetting that she was in fact, a mage, and could use her magic. Lucy's smirk only widened; this was going exactly how she wanted. She took three golden keys from her glowing belt, and shouted, "Gate of the Golden Bull, Scorpion, Twins, I open thee, Taurus, Scorpio, Gemini!"

"Moooooo! You're beautiful body mooooooves me, Lucy!"

"We are! Yeah!"

"Heya!"

"… still as lively as ever, I guess. Anyways, no time for chitchat! Taurus, Scorpio, unison raid! Gemini, in an opening, I want you to do _that_."

"YES, LUCY!" And they all sprang into action. While Taurus and Scorpio distracted Minerva along with Lucy, Gemini managed to touch the Sabertooth mage and copy her (not sure if Gemini has to touch someone to copy, but whatever). Lucy grinned in satisfaction, her plan was a success! Taurus and Scorpio poofed away as she sat down under a tree, watching Minerva fight off herself. She idly wondered who would win, considering they were matched in everything. Finally, Gemini got stabbed in the stomach and poofed away as well, but by now, Minerva was panting heavily from exhaustion. Lucy got up from her comfortable spot and summoned her two swords. "Well, time for me to fight, I guess."

It wasn't much of a fight; Minerva had completely drained her magic already from fighting Gemini. Lucy picked up Minerva's magic stones, and walked over to Sherry to heal her. She took two magic stones from her pocket and gave it back to Sherry. The Forest Hunt event ended, and Lucy won with eleven magic stones. Snow White and Laxus had tied on second with nine, how Snow White got so many was an enigma to Lucy. Hibiki just got third with six stones, Bacchus following closely behind with five. Milliana had three, Sherry had two, and Minerva ended up with zero. Lucy smirked, satisfied she got her revenge on Minerva, and joined Fairy Tail's giant group hug. Nothing could ruin her happiness today.


End file.
